Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has suspended the licence of Mr Wong Chi Fai, a former licensed representative of Fulbright Securities Limited and Fulbright Futures Limited, for 27 months. The suspension will run until 22 April 2028.

As part of an investigation into a suspected ramp-and-dump scheme, the SFC found that, between October 2019 and January 2022, unbeknownst to Fulbright, Wong conducted approximately 1,300 securities transactions with an aggregate value of $670 million via a securities account held in the name of his relative maintained at another brokerage firm.

Wong not only failed to disclose to Fulbright his beneficial interest and personal trading activities in the undisclosed securities account but also falsely declared to Fulbright on multiple occasions that there were no external securities accounts in which he had any beneficial interest.

The SFC also found that, between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2018, Wong conducted approximately 10,000 personal trades with an aggregate value of $2.8 billion through a securities account held in the name of his relative at Open Securities Limited (OSL) when he was an employee of the broker without obtaining the required approval. In this connection, Wong had made a number of false declarations to conceal from OSL his financial interest in and control over the securities account between May 2011 and December 2018.

Wong’s conduct circumvented the staff dealing policies of Fulbright and OSL and prevented them from monitoring his personal trading activities. The SFC concluded that Wong’s conduct is willful and dishonest, thereby calling into question his fitness and properness to remain a licensed person.

In determining the sanction against Wong, the SFC has taken into account a variety of factors, including:

• his breaches lasted for nearly 10 years;
• the significant number and amount of his personal trades were primarily attributable to his frequent day trading and short-term margin trading activities;
• Wong cooperated with the SFC in resolving the SFC’s concerns; and
• his otherwise clean disciplinary record.