The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday ordered Asia Wealth Securities to cease all its operations after its net capital fell below zero for more than 5 business days.
The SEC said the net capital of AWS was negative for more than five business days from Nov 14 and all its business activities would be suspended until it could maintain its net capital and receives permission from the SEC to resume business.
The regulator also ordered AWS to transfer the assets of its clients to other peer firms within 10 business days from Monday.
On Friday the SEC suspended AWS for alleged use of clients' money without their consent and demanded it return all the money by Nov 20.
The SEC said that AWS had spent 157.99 million baht from clients' accounts on unauthorised share purchases.
The SEC's move followed the start of an investigation into suspicious trading in the shares of More Return Plc (MORE), a company officially said to do business in the energy, water and property sectors.
Trading in MORE was suspended on Monday after the Stock Exchange of Thailand noticed suspicious trading of its shares on Thursday and Friday, Nov 10-11.
Other agencies including the Anti-Money Laundering Office are involved in the investigation. The irregular trading caused damage estimated at more than 4.3 billion baht to several brokers.
