On April 18, 2012 Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) published that the Court of Appeal granted leave to Tiger Asia Management LLC and three of its officers, Mr Bill Sung Kook Hwang, Mr Raymond Park and Mr William Tomita (collectively the Tiger Asia parties) to take their case to the Court of Final Appeal (Note 1). The issue for the Court of Final Appeal is whether the Court of First Instance has jurisdiction to determine whether the Tiger Asia parties have contravened section 291 and section 295 of the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO) in proceedings brought by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) under section 213 of the SFO and make final orders or whether a contravention must be determined either by the Market Misconduct Tribunal or a criminal court (Note 2).

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On April 17, 2012 Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) published that commission has prohibited Mr Ng Chi Keung from re-entering the industry for 10 years from 17 April 2012 to 16 April 2022 for failing to establish the true identity of the holder of an account and allowing unauthorized persons to operate that account (Note 1). The SFC’s disciplinary action arose from an investigation into a complaint concerning over $65 million worth of shares of Sino Union Energy Investment Group Limited held in an account at Cheer Union Securities Ltd. Ng was a responsible officer of Cheer Union during the material time (Note 2).

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On April 17, 2012 Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) published that it has permanently banned a former insurance broker from providing financial services. Between August 2009 and July 2010, Alan Charstone, of Croydon South in Victoria, was an authorised representative of Insurance Advisernet Australia Pty Ltd (IAA). ASIC’s investigation found Mr Charstone engaged in dishonest and deceptive conduct between August 2009 and July 2010 in relation to business and personal insurance. Specifically, Mr Charstone failed to place adequate insurance cover for clients and misappropriated client funds.

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On April 16, 2012 Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) published that the Asian Capital Resources (Holdings) Limited and its former company secretary Mr Andrew James Chandler were today convicted of providing false or misleading information to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (Note 1). ACR pleaded guilty to five summonses and Chandler to two summonses in a hearing today at the Eastern Magistracy. They were fined $100,000 and $10,000 respectively and ordered to pay the Securities and Futures Commission’s investigation costs. The SFC alleged that between October 2008 and October 2009, ACR issued five different announcements stating that Mr Qiu Yue, an executive director of ACR, held no interest in any shares of ACR or incorrectly stating the level of Qiu’s interests (Note 2).

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On April 04, 2012 Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) published that board on analysis of the information available with it, prima facie found that fraudulent announcements regarding positive developments in the company Bodal Chemicals Ltd. had been made, vide a fax sent on August 20, 2011, to the Bombay Stock Exchange with a view to mislead investors. These announcements or disclosures were disseminated by the BSE through its website on Aug 29, 2011, at 8:13 hrs and 8:18 hrs. However, by 13:41 hrs, the company denied any of these developments or sending any such fax message to BSE. Based on the same, BSE, on the same day, during market hours, at 14:24 hrs, disseminated a clarification to that effect.

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On April 10, 2012 Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) published that the commission has suspended Mr Thomas Chan Ping Keung, a responsible officer and director of Able Alliance International Limited, for six months from 3 April 2012 to 2 October 2012 (Notes 1 and 2). The disciplinary action follows Chan’s conviction in the Eastern Magistrates Court in November 2010 on two counts of failing to submit Able Alliance’s audited financial statements for the financial years 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 to the SFC within the specified period and on two counts of making false and misleading representations to the SFC in applications for extending the submission deadlines (Note 3).

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On April 10, 2012 Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) published that Mr Glenn Russell Evans, a former Senior Client Advisor with Bell Potter Securities Limited, was today charged with 15 counts of fraudulent conduct involving more than $1.06 million following an ASIC investigation. Mr Evans, 44, of Leichhardt, NSW, appeared before Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court. The conduct arises from Mr Evan’s role as a director of Kismet Trading Pty Ltd (In Liquidation) during his employment as a Senior Client Advisor for the stockbroking company, Bell Potter Securities, where he worked until his resignation on 15 October 2008.

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On April 04, 2012 British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) published that the commission has issued a notice of hearing alleging that a Vancouver woman and two companies she controls committed a fraud that raised about $83 million from 218 investors. The notice alleges that Rashida Samji, a former notary public, offered what she claimed was a “secure investment” to investors between approximately 2003 and January 2012. The executive director says that Samji told investors that: their money would be safely held in her notary trust account, and would not be paid out to any party.

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On April 04, 2012 Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) published that the commission accepted an enforceable undertaking (EU) from former Commonwealth Financial Planning Limited (CFPL) employee, Mr Christopher Baker of Croydon, NSW, not to provide financial services in any capacity for a minimum of five years after he failed to meet various obligations as a financial adviser. The EU follows an investigation into the advice provided by several of CFPL’s financial advisers. CFPL is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and operates under the advice structure of Colonial First State, which is also part of the CBA.

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On April 03, 2012 British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) published that the commission’s Criminal Investigations Team have arrested a Surrey man and charged him with ten counts of fraud over $5,000 and ten counts of theft over $5,000. On April 2, Roberto Castano was arrested by the BCSC’s Criminal Investigations Team and the Surrey RCMP without incident at his home. The arrest follows a lengthy and complex investigation conducted by the BCSC. The charges against Castano have not been proven.

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On April 02, 2012 Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) published that the financial services representative, Barry David Hassell, of Athelstone in Adelaide, South Australia, has offered an enforceable undertaking (EU) to ASIC to permanently refrain from providing financial services. ASIC accepted the EU from Mr Hassell, 62, as part of a wider investigation into his conduct as a financial services representative.

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On April 02, 2012 British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) published that the commission’s Criminal Investigations Team and the Vancouver Police Department have arrested a Vancouver man and charged him with eight counts that include fraud, selling securities without being registered, and selling securities without a prospectus. On March 29, Claude (C.C.) West was arrested by the BCSC’s Criminal Investigations Team without incident at his home in Vancouver. The Vancouver Police were on hand at the arrest, which was the result of an undercover investigation conducted by the BCSC.

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On March 26, 2012 Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) published that the commission has banned Mr Ramesh Kumar Chuharmal Sadhwani, a former licensed representative of Citigroup Global Markets Asia Limited, from re-entering the industry for 10 years from 23 March 2012 to 22 March 2022 (Notes 1 and 2). The SFC’s decision to ban Sadhwani was upheld by the Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal, which varied the SFC’s initial decision to ban Sadhwani for life (Note 3). The SFC investigation found that Sadhwani operated a fraudulent scheme involving 13 Citi Asia wealth management clients who invested with Citi Asia on the basis of representations made by Sadhwani that their money would be pooled and used to purchase US Treasuries and other products. Sadhwani promised the affected customers that their principal was protected and returns were guaranteed by Citi Asia. Instead, returns were funded wholly or partly from other affected clients induced by Sadhwani’s representations.

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On March 16, 2012 Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) published that the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has affirmed ASIC’s decision to ban Don Nguyen of Dulwich Hill, New South Wales from providing financial services for seven years. Mr Nguyen was employed by Commonwealth Financial Planning Limited (CFPL) as an authorised representative between 1 October 2003 and 6 July 2009. In March 2011 (refer: 11-42AD) ASIC disqualified Mr Nguyen from providing financial services after an investigation found that he failed to comply with the financial services laws by: failing to have a reasonable basis for advice, failing to provide statements of advice, failing to provide product disclosure statements, failing to provide additional information when recommending the replacement of one financial product with another; making statements that were false and misleading in a material particular, and inducing clients to deal in financial products by making statement or forecast that were misleading, false or deceptive.

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On March 15, 2012 Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) published that the District Court today acquitted Mr David Vong Tat-Ieong, chief executive officer of Vongroup Ltd, of two charges that he disclosed false or misleading information inducing the sale or purchase of securities or to maintain or increase the price of Vongroup shares (Notes 1 and 2). The Court heard that, on 15 May 2007, Vongroup issued an announcement to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited and a press release disclosing that Vongroup Holdings Ltd, a company wholly owned by Vong through which he held 72% of the issued share capital of Vongroup, was selling a 9.9% stake in Vongroup to ABN AMRO Bank NV. On the following day, Vongroup’s share price rose 31.25% and its turnover increased 791%.

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