Former UBS Banker Wins Right to Appeal Work Ban in Hong Kong

(Bloomberg) -- Henry Cai, a former managing director at UBS Group AG, won the right to appeal a 2019 decision by Hong Kong’s market watchdog that banned him from working in the industry for five years.

The appeals tribunal at the Securities and Futures Commission said it will allow Cai to appeal its decision after concluding that there’s insufficient evidence to show that Cai was the leader of a transaction team related to an initial public offering of China Metal Recycling Holdings Ltd., according to a June 4 statement.

There’s no “unequivocal documentary material” showing that Cai was aware that he was the principal in charge of the transaction team, the tribunal said.

The SFC had earlier ruled that Cai had failed to discharge his supervisory duties as the principal in relation to the listing.

The regulator in 2019 suspended, reprimanded and fined UBS $375 million for failing to discharge its obligations as one of the joint sponsors of three listing applications, including China Metal Recycling. The Swiss bank in January last year won an early reinstatement from a one-year suspension after cooperating with a 10-month review of its policies and practices.

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