UBS's Asia Veteran Lee Departs After Compliance Probe

(Bloomberg) -- Michel Lee, a UBS Group AG veteran, left this month after an internal investigation into a compliance breach, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The probe related to the alleged disclosure of confidential client information to a third party, the person said, asking not to be identified as the details are private. The investigation had led to the suspensions of Lee and Li Heung, a junior banker at Lee’s unit, the person said. Li subsequently left the bank.

Lee was Asia head of corporate solutions at UBS’s equity capital markets division, which saw a reshuffling of top executives earlier this year. The circumstances of his departure weren’t clear. Mark Panday, a Hong Kong-based spokesman at UBS, declined to comment. Lee wasn’t immediately reachable on his mobile phone Wednesday.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that a UBS banker working on the Hong Kong initial public offering of ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co. last year disclosed the identity of an investor that sold shares for a profit shortly after the listing. The incident triggered an internal probe and in relation to the probe Lee was suspended, the report said, citing unidentified sources.

Lee joined UBS as an intern in London in 1993, according to his LinkedIn profile. He moved to Japan two years later and was promoted to his most recent role in Hong Kong June 2017.

To contact the reporter on this story: Cathy Chan in Hong Kong at kchan14@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Mamudi at smamudi@bloomberg.net, Jeanette Rodrigues

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