Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today announces that it has suspended the licence of Ms Sandra Cheung Wing Yi, former licensed representative of Mason Securities Limited (MSL). The suspension will last for 12 months, that is, until October 27, 2021.

The disciplinary action follows an SFC investigation which found that between November 2014 and July 2017, Cheung failed to obtain approval to maintain a securities trading account with an external brokerage firm. She conducted 66 personal trades in the aforesaid account, in violation of MSL’s internal control policies.

In addition, she provided false and misleading declarations to MSL by declaring on multiple occasions that she did not have any personal trading accounts with other licensed corporations.

In doing so, Cheung breached MSL’s internal control policies. Her conduct deprived MSL the opportunity to effectively and actively monitor and review employee trading activities in order to protect the integrity of the market.

The SFC considers that Cheung’s conduct, which is found to be willful and dishonest, calls into question her fitness and properness to be a licensed person.

In determining the sanction against Cheung, the SFC considered a variety of factors, including her remorse and cooperation in resolving the SFC’s concerns, and her otherwise clean disciplinary record.