The Securities and Futures Commission has won the first court action in an investigation of short-selling activities during the Government's market intervention last year. Long Investment Management was fined $5,000 and ordered to pay costs of $6,000 to the SFC by a court for short selling securities on August 28 last year. The company pleaded guilty before Peter Law Tak-chuen at Western Magistracy to two summonses of short selling 9,600 HSBC shares. There was widespread short selling and delayed settlements during the Government's intervention in the market last year. The SFC carried out the investigation after 244 brokers - nearly half the brokers in Hong Kong - failed to settle trades worth $14.67 billion made on August 28. Sources said the short selling investigation had yet to finish and that more brokers and investors might face disciplinary action. In a separate case, a deputy chairman of a listed company was ordered to pay a fine of $40,000 for manipulating his own company's shares. In addition, he was ordered to pay $257,987 - more than six times the cost of his fine - to the SFC as the investigation cost. Vincent Ngai Man-sang, deputy chairman of Dong Jian Group Holdings, pleaded guilty before Polly Lo at Western Magistracy yesterday for creating a false and misleading market of Dong Jian from September 15 last year to January 19 this year. The SFC investigation found that Ngai instructed a group of eight nominees to open accounts at different brokers to trade Dong Jian shares. The eight nominees were Ngai's relatives, friends or Dong Jian employees. Their purchases and sales dominated the market and created a misleading appearance of active trading in the shares of Dong Jian.
