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Hong Kong Watchdog Readies Charges Against Widespread Fraud
Hong Kong Watchdog Readies Charges Against Widespread Fraud
10 Oct 2018, 09:52 PM IST
(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission said it is preparing to charge 60 companies and individuals as investigations into what enforcement chief Tom Atkinson called “nefarious networks” come to a head. He spoke at the Refinitiv Pan Asian Regulatory Summit in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
Key Insights
- The action would help ease longstanding concern that small-cap firms are causing losses for investors and denting Hong Kong’s reputation as a global financial hub.
- The SFC is keen to bolster its reputation as a tough regulator and highlighted that its raids over the past year have covered about 200 entities and residential premises.
- Atkinson’s comment that complex networks of listed companies, brokers, money lenders and financial advisers had enriched themselves at the expense of ordinary shareholders shows the deep-rooted challenge facing overseers.
Digging Deeper
- The SFC revamped operations two years ago to better target stock manipulation, shareholder vote-rigging and defrauding of minority investors.
- Hong Kong regulators have over the past year been tightening rules on backdoor listings, rights issues and other actions seen as tools for market misconduct.
- Atkinson on Wednesday didn’t disclose deadlines for filing the charges but said “life is about to get very uncomfortable for those who abuse our capital markets.”
Read More
- Hong Kong’s Regulator in Punisher Mode as Pace of Fines Picks Up
- Hong Kong to Punish ‘Reckless’ IPO Sponsors After UBS Ban
- Former Standard Chartered Banker Banned for Hong Kong IPO Work
To contact the reporter on this story: Benjamin Robertson in Hong Kong at brobertson29@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Mamudi at smamudi@bloomberg.net, Jeanette Rodrigues
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
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