The Securities Commission of Malaysia (SC) said the appellate court dismissed Sreesanthan’s appeal in the civil case, over his acquisition of 600,000 Worldwide shares while allegedly in possession of non-public information between June and July 2006.

Sreesanthan, who was a senior partner in a law firm, had acted as a legal adviser for the proposed privatisation of Worldwide.

“The Court of Appeal unanimously found no merits in the appeal and affirmed the judgment of the High Court while ordering Sreesanthan to pay costs of RM50,000 to the SC,” it said in a statement.

In November 2020, the High Court ruled that Sreesanthan had engaged in insider trading of Worldwide shares.

It ordered him to pay the SC some RM1.99 million, which was three times the amount of profits he had gained from the insider trading.

Sreesanthan was also told to pay the SC a civil penalty of RM1 million and was barred from serving as the director of any listed company for 10 years from Nov 18, 2020.

In October last year, the SC withdrew a separate case against Sreesanthan after the lawyer agreed to forfeit RM900,000 as settlement for insider trading.

That same month, the Kuala Lumpur High Court affirmed Sreesanthan’s acquittal in that separate case after the prosecution withdrew its appeal.

Kuala Lumpur sessions court judge Zamri Bakar had earlier acquitted Sreesanthan, without calling for his defence, in the case.