Lai See | Champagne moment for Andy Mantel and Pacific Sun after court victory

Andy Mantel, together with lawyers and friends, were understood to have been in Lan Kwai Fong celebrating into the early hours on Saturday after winning a three-and-a-half-year battle with the Securities and Futures Commission that ended in the Court of Final Appeal on Friday.

The SFC first charged Mantel and Pacific Sun Advisors, of which he is the founder and chief executive, in 2013 with running advertisements to promote a collective investment scheme without its authorisation.

Mantel had argued that such authorisation was not required since the investment fund was only for professional rather than retail investors. The SFC maintained that it was required since the advertisement did not expressly state the fund was only for professional investors.

Professional investors are required to sign a declaration indicating that they have at least HK$8 million in liquid assets.

The SFC subsequently took the case to the High Court and it was sent back to the magistrate's court where Mantel and Pacific Sun were convicted on four charges of issuing advertisements to promote a collective investment scheme without the SFC's authorisation.

Pacific Sun was fined HK$20,000 and Mantel was sentenced to four weeks' imprisonment, suspended for 12 months. They were also charged with advertising the fund through unauthorised emails.

Mantel and Pacific Sun resumed their sparring with the SFC when in October last year they were given leave to appeal. The case was heard early this month.