Jailed retail tycoon Wong Kwong-yu is facing the first of what may be a wave of civil lawsuits brought against him by disgruntled investors after his conviction for insider trading.
An investor identified only as Li, has been notified by the Beijing No 2 intermediate court that the hearing will take place on September 6.
'Li is the first investor who has a court hearing confirmed,' the claimant's lawyer, Zhang Yuanzhong, said. 'I'm assisting dozens of other investors who have approached me to sue Wong.'
He said Li suffered a loss of about 400,000 yuan (HK$483,000) and is suing for that much and possibly additional compensation. A class action is also being considered, Zhang said.
Wong, founder of and a major shareholder in the mainland's second-largest household appliances retailer, the Hong Kong-listed Gome, was convicted of insider trading, illegal business operations and bribery in May 2010 and lost his appeal in August. He was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment, fined 600 million yuan and had 200 million yuan in personal assets seized.
For the insider trading charge, Wong was convicted of manipulating the share price of the mainland-listed Beijing Centergate Technologies (Holding) Co in 2007, after he heard of a pending asset-restructuring deal between Beijing Centergate, where he was board chairman, and the Beijing Pengtai Company, where he was legal representative.
