Market manipulators of Hong Kong-listed Ching Lee have sentencing adjourned to July

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Sentencing hearing adjourned until July as judge considers appropriate punishments for trio convicted of artificially boosting share price

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Jiaxing Li

Published: 4:08pm, 17 Jun 2024

A sentencing hearing for three individuals convicted in a high-profile market manipulation case involving Hong Kong-listed Ching Lee Holdings has been adjourned until July, according to court officials.

Additional time is needed to consider appropriate sentences and fines for the defendants, Douglas Yau Tak Hong, deputy judge of the Court of First Instance of the High Court, stated during a hearing on Monday. The next hearing will be on July 22.

The three convicted individuals, Sit Yi Ki, Lam Wing Ki, and Tam Cheuk Hang, were found guilty in a landmark prosecution brought by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) last month. It was a “highly sophisticated and complex” market manipulation case, and also marked the first time an offence under the Securities and Futures Ordinance had been tried at the Court of First Instance, the SFC said.

The trio will remain in custody while awaiting sentencing. Nelson Ho Ming Hin and Simon Suen Man, the other two individuals alleged to have been involved in the market manipulation case, are still at large and currently wanted by authorities.

Ching Lee Holdings, listed on Hong Kong’s secondary GEM board, is an investment holding company primarily involved in construction, consultancy and project-management services in the city. The company’s stock price stood at HK$0.075 per share on Monday with a market capitalisation of HK$76 million (US$9.7 million), after plunging nearly 14 per cent this year and 99 per cent from its all-time high in August 2016.

The false trading scheme was planned and commenced before Ching Lee’s initial public offering (IPO) on March 29, 2016, and lasted for more than five months. The conspirators artificially boosted turnover of the shares by conducting manipulative transactions among 156 securities accounts under their control, according to the SFC.