The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong has banned Mr Suen Kin-wing, a former Associate Director of UBS AG, from re-entering the industry for life.

The ban reflects Suen’s criminal convictions for money laundering and committal for contempt of court.

The case arose from Suen’s role as the Client Advisor of two Mainland Chinese clients who held a joint account with UBS. Since the clients encountered difficulties in remitting RMB from the Mainland to Hong Kong, they entered into an arrangement with Suen to facilitate cross-boundary fund transfers. Under the arrangement, they would transfer funds into Mainland bank accounts designated by Suen, and thereafter the funds would be remitted to Hong Kong and deposited into the Joint Account.

All in all, the clients transferred over RMB132 million to Suen’s designated Mainland accounts between November 2016 and February 2018. Although Suen provided transaction confirmations and bank statements which purported to show that the remitted funds had been deposited into the Joint Account, the clients subsequently discovered that a significant proportion of the transferred money was missing.

During the material time, deposits totalling over HK$134 million had been diverted into two Hong Kong bank accounts belonging to Suen. The Court found that the diverted deposits were crime proceeds, being sums which Suen had defrauded or stolen from the clients. The Court also found that Suen had used the stolen proceeds to maintain a lavish lifestyle, spending them on his purchases of luxury vehicles and numerous properties in the UK and Mainland China.

The Court of First Instance sentenced Suen to 10 years’ imprisonment on 21 June 2024 following his guilty pleas to two counts of dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of indictable offence.

Meanwhile, the two clients obtained a worldwide freezing injunction against Suen in July 2018 as part of their legal action to recover the misappropriated sums. Specifically, Suen was prohibited from, among other things, disposing of or dealing with any of his assets up to the value of HK$130 million.

However, he assigned his interest in a number of the UK Properties to a BVI company owned by him, in breach of the injunction. As a result, he was sentenced by the Court of First Instance on 20 December 2023 to six months’ imprisonment on account of his contempt of court.

In the circumstances, the SFC concluded that Suen is not fit and proper to be a regulated person.