The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has issued restriction notices to Emperor Securities Limited and Get Nice Securities Limited, prohibiting them from dealing with or processing certain assets held in 17 trading accounts which are related to a suspected social media ramp-and-dump scam. The scam was involved in the manipulation of the market in late October 2021 in the shares of a company listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited .
The SFC conducted a search operation after issuing the restriction notices.
The restriction notices prohibit the two brokerage firms, without the SFC’s prior written consent, from disposing of or dealing with, or assisting, counselling or procuring another person to dispose of or deal with, any assets in any way in the trading accounts including:
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entering into transactions in respect of any securities;
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processing any withdrawals or transfers of securities and/or cash on the instructions of any authorized person of the accounts or by any person acting on their behalf;
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disposing of or dealing with any securities and/or cash on the instructions of any authorized person of the accounts or by any person acting on their behalf; and/or
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assisting another person to dispose of any relevant property or deal with any relevant property in a specified manner.
The brokers are also required to notify the SFC if they receive any of these instructions.
FNG readers may recall that, in March 2021, the SFC issued restriction notices to 15 brokers prohibiting them from dealing with or processing certain assets held in 32 trading accounts. These accounts are linked to a suspected social media ramp-and-dump scam involving the manipulation of the market in the shares of a company listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited between November 2019 and November 2020.
The 15 brokerages are: Canfield Securities Company Limited, China Galaxy International Securities (Hong Kong) Co., Limited, China Tonghai Securities Limited, Emperor Securities Limited, Enhanced Securities Limited, Enlighten Securities Limited, Futu Securities International (Hong Kong) Limited, Huatai Financial Holdings (Hong Kong) Limited, I Win Securities Limited, KGI Asia Limited, Riches Depot Securities Co., Limited, Solomon Securities Limited, Sun Hung Kai Investment Services Limited, Sun International Securities Limited and Yuzhou Financial Holdings Limited.