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Enoch Yiu

The Securities and Futures Commission has successfully sought a court order freezing the assets of another company under investigation, the fourth such action in a month under recently confirmed powers.
The SFC applied to the High Court to freeze HK$29.9 million worth of assets of United States hedge fund Tiger Asia Management. 
The company, its South Korean founder Bill Hwang Sung-kook and two other defendants, Raymond Park and William Tomita, were named in a writ filed by the SFC to the High Court.
The court accepted the regulator's request to grant the order freezing the money, being the alleged profit the hedge fund gained in dealings in the shares of China Construction Bank Corp on January 6.  
The frozen funds will be used to compensate victims of the dealings if the SFC investigation confirms there were malpractices.
The latest action may involve only a modest amount of money but is the first time the regulator has tested its powers to see if they can be extended to an overseas-operated fund trading in Hong Kong. 
The court paper said Tiger Asia and the three defendants could not remove the money.  
If their assets in Hong Kong do not reach HK$29.9 million, the order can be extended to include any overseas-held assets.
The SFC also asked the court to prohibit Tiger Asia and the three defendants from trading in Hong Kong any securities or futures contracts if such trading 'is likely to have the effect of creating  a false or misleading appearance of active trading' in the stock.
Tiger Asia was  founded by  Mr Hwang in 2000 and is one of the Tiger Cubs - hedge funds based in New York founded by managers who worked under Julian Robertson at Tiger Management.
Earlier, the commission successfully applied for a court order to freeze HK$1.66 billion worth of assets of Wong Kwong-yu, the former chairman of Gome Electrical Appliances Holdings, his wife Du Juan and two related companies over  money it alleged Wong earned from a repurchase of shares of the company to finance his own debt last year. 
The Court of Appeal last month confirmed the SFC has the power to seek court orders to freeze assets of defendants in two separate insider dealing cases.
In such cases, if the investigation confirms wrongdoing such as fraud, insider dealing or market manipulation, the money will be in place to make compensation to the victims involved.
Suspect trades
Deals in shares of China Construction Bank Corp cited in SFC move 
Amount of assets frozen by securities regulator's court action, in HK$: 29.9m



SFC action leads to asset freeze for hedge fund Tiger Asia