In the U.S., we are pretty firm on the concept that “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” And I would argue the U.S. is even more firmly against the novel concept of “I knew about the law, but I just wasn’t thinking about it at the time and now I’m sorry for violating it.”
South Africa, however, has its own legal system, including its own securities regulator (called the Financial Services Board in South Africa) and its own insider trading laws — all of which were on display in the Order issued last week by the FSB’s Enforcement Committee against one Mr. Bernard Melvin Johnson.
via The ‘I did not apply my mind’ defense to insider trading | Compliance Week
