Record 7-year sentence for insider trader

The investment banker at the centre of the city's biggest insider trading case has received the toughest sentence handed down by a Hong Kong court for the crime.

Former Morgan Stanley managing director Du Jun was yesterday jailed for seven years and fined HK$23.3 million - the amount he stood to make from the deal.

'I can't think of another reason other than being driven by sheer greed for his action,' District Court Judge Andrew Chan Hing-wai said in handing down the sentence.

The city's stock market watchdog, the Securities and Futures Commission, welcomed the sentence, the maximum that can be imposed for the offence by the District Court, although the High Court can sentence insider traders to 10 years.

'The sentence sends the strongest possible message that insider dealing is not tolerated in Hong Kong and those found guilty can expect lengthy terms of imprisonment,' SFC chief executive Martin Wheatley said.

The judge also banned Du from being a director or manager of any listed company for five years, and from trading on the local financial markets during that time.

Du, 40, was last week found guilty of insider trading and of advising his wife, Li Xin, to deal in Citic Resources Holdings shares from February to April 2007. He spent HK$87 million - including savings and HK$50 million he borrowed - for the illegal trading.