A former BNP Paribas Peregrine Capital banker and his girlfriend yesterday became the first people to be jailed in Hong Kong for insider trading, raising the stakes in the fight against white-collar crime.
Ma Hon-yeung, a former vice-president of BNP, was sentenced to 26 months' imprisonment and fined HK$230,000 by Chief District Judge Patrick Li Hon-leung.
Ma's girlfriend, Ivy Lo Yuk-wah, was jailed for 12 months and fined HK$210,000.
The fines are similar to the amount of profit they made from the illegal insider dealing in shares of Egana Jewellery & Pearls before its privatisation plan three years ago.
The court heard that Ma worked on the planned privatisation of Egana in 2006 and within days of knowing about the deal, tipped off his girlfriend and three family members about buying shares in the company before the deal was announced.
Ma and Lo are the first insider traders to be put behind bars after it became a criminal offence in 2003 under the Securities and Futures Ordinance. The offence attracts a maximum penalty of a 10-year imprisonment and a HK$10 million fine. Before 2003, insider traders only faced fines and a ban of several years from serving as a director.
