Hong Kong investment boss walks free in ‘unlicenced dealing’ case
Ipfund Asset Management Limited and its sole director Ronald Sin Chung-yin were accused of running an investment scheme without a licence from the Securities and Futures Commission.
A property investment consultancy and its sole director were acquitted on Friday of carrying out a series of collective investment schemes without a licence from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).
The District Court case centred on dealings made by the consultancy, whose director invited relatives and friends to subscribe to shares of shell companies that held commercial properties.
These properties were quickly sold, with profits then distributed in accordance with each investor’s contribution and the consultancy pocketed 5 per cent in fees while it deregisters the shell companies after each property sale.
In its first indictable prosecution, the SFC accused Ipfund Asset Management Limited and its sole director and shareholder Ronald Sin Chung-yin of engaging in 16 such schemes without being licensed by the SFC, as required in most dealings in securities.
Sin, 45, was said to have managed and controlled the schemes as he scoured for properties and made investment decisions.
Investors ultimately bagged more than HK$30 million in profits, while the consultancy earned HK$2 million in fees between February and December 2011.
Prosecutor Newman Wong Hing-wai said such conduct was contrary to the Securities and Futures Ordinance, whose breach is liable to a HK$5 million fine and seven years in prison.