Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has banned Wong Kwun Shing, a former licensed representative of Convoy Asset Management Limited (CAML), from re-entering the industry for life.

The disciplinary action follows an SFC investigation which found that Wong took part in a stock manipulation scheme involving a company listed on the Growth Enterprise Market of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (Company A).

From June to July 2016, Wong, a wealth management consultant of CAML, succeeded in persuading X, a colleague, to join the scheme. X proceeded to solicit and arrange for 10 of his clients to buy the shares of Company A from the manipulators involved in the scheme. X’s clients agreed to hold onto the shares for one to three months during which the manipulators would purportedly push up the share price. They also agreed to sell them only with X’s permissions in return for cash rebates of 12% to 15% of the transaction value. However, X’s clients ended up suffering substantial losses as the share price of Company A collapsed before they were allowed to offload their shares.

Wong coordinated, arranged and facilitated the transactions through which X’s clients bought the shares from the manipulators. Specifically, on each occasion, Wong would confirm the date, time, size and price with the manipulators in advance and give detailed instructions to X to ensure that his clients’ bid orders would match the manipulators’ ask orders. Wong would then collect the cash rebates from the manipulators and pay X for onward distribution to his clients.

The SFC also found that Wong had breached the SFO by knowingly giving false or misleading answers in a material particular to conceal his involvement in the scheme when he attended an interview with the SFC in 2018.

The regulator considers that Wong is not a fit and proper person to be licensed, as his conduct casts serious doubts on his character, reliability and ability to carry on regulated activities competently, honestly and fairly.

In determining the sanction against Wong, the SFC has taken into account a variety of factors, including Wong’s attempt to conceal his misconduct and mislead the SFC had impeded the SFC’s investigation, as well as the need to send a strong deterrent message to the industry that the SFC will not tolerate such misconduct.