HONG KONG: Broker Acquitted of Illegal Short Selling

Wednesday August 1 2018

Mr. Wong Hung has been found not guilty of illegal short selling by a Magistrates Court in Hong Kong.

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) alleged that, on 20 occasions between 6 and 20 January 2012, Mr. Wong Hung sold shares of five stocks through his securities account at Hung Sing Securities Limited, when the total of the shares he sold was more than the shares he held.

In deciding to acquit Wong, Magistrate Mr Li Chi-ho found that as Wong placed a large number of orders each day and that he did not gain any profit from selling the five stocks, he could not exclude the possibility that Wong was just careless and that he did not realise he was not holding sufficient interests in the five stocks when placing the sell orders.

The SFC is considering the Magistrate’s decision.

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