Securities: HK Court confirms ban for insider dealing
Hong Kong's Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by David TSIEN Pak Cheong against a ban imposed by the Securities and Futures Commission resulting from a finding that he had engaged in insider trading.
David Tsien Pak Cheong , a former equity salesman with JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd (JP Morgan) was banned by the SFC from re-entering the industry for life ). Tsien appealed to the Securities and Futures Appeal Tribunal and the ban was reduced to ten years.
The SFC appealed in the Court of Appeal the SFAT’s decision to reduce the period in which Tsien was banned from re-entering the securities industry from life to 10 years.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the SFC's appeal.
Accordingly, Tsien is banned from re-entering the securities industry for a period of 10 years from 22 September 2010.
The SFC’s disciplinary action followed a finding by the Market Misconduct Tribunal (MMT) that Tsien, together with two other parties, engaged in market misconduct in respect of the shares of China Overseas Land and Investment Ltd (COLI).
The MMT found that Tsien, between 7 January 2004 and 26 January 2004, disclosed inside information to two other parties in respect of negotiations between JP Morgan and COLI in relation to a top-up placement of the latter’s shares. The two recipients of the information then separately sold COLI shares to avoid the loss in the value of those shares, flowing from what they believed would be a fall in the market price of COLI shares following disclosure of the relevant information to the market. The MMT’s report is available on the MMT’s website (www.mmt.gov.hk).
Tsien was licensed under the Securities and Futures Ordinance to carry on Type 1 (dealing in securities) and Type 4 (advising on securities) regulated activities and had been accredited to JP Morgan (or the companies taken over by it earlier) from 1988 to 2006. His licence was revoked in April 2006 and he does not currently hold an SFC licence.
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