A WITNESS had used more than $30,000 to buy shares though it was made out that the money was paid out to repay a loan, the Insider Trading Tribunal was told. Counsel for the tribunal, Graham Harris QC, said that a cheque of $31,662, issued by market co-ordinator Chan Kwan-hop in January last year, was in fact a joint investment in the warrants of Ms Chan and her colleague, although 'loan repayment to Amy' was written in the corresponding cheque stub. The tribunal was earlier told that Ms Chan, who earned $7,000 at the time, had borrowed about $160,000 from Amy Foong Swe Heng and Ms Foong's husband, Leong Kwok Nyem, for purchasing Public International Investment (PIIL) shares in December, 1992. Both women are allegedly engaged in insider dealing of PIIL shares, which was indirectly funded by Mr Leong, general manager of JCG Finance. Testifying, Ms Chan said it was an error when she filled up the counterfoil. 'I filled in the stub some time after I made out the cheque . . . I may have forgotten and made a mistake in this case,' she said. During the hearing, Mr Harris also asked her about the sudden appearance of some notes in Ms Chan's bank books following the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) interviews in June last year. The notes said two withdrawals of $50,000 and $20,000 from Ms Chan's account on May 6 and in June, respectively, were loans to her elder brother and sister. Ms Chan admitted that the notes were made only after the SFC interviews. '[An interviewer] told me that I might have to explain every single transaction exceeding $10,000, in court,' she said. 'Therefore, I started to recall the details only after the interviews.' She rejected suggestions that the withdrawals were deposited in Mr Leong's accounts. The tribunal was told that at the same periods, two sums of $50,000 and $20,000 were found to be deposited in the general manager's account. The hearing continues today.
