The Eastern Magistrates’ Court yesterday maintained the original sentence of Mr Chan Wing Fai after considering the Securities and Futures Commission’s (SFC) application to review his sentence.
Chan was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment on 29 April 2014 after he was convicted on seven charges of false trading in the shares of Sonavox International Holdings Limited and PacMOS Technologies Holdings Limited (Notes 1 & 2).
The SFC was concerned that the court had not taken into account the fact that Chan had relevant prior convictions, having been convicted on 12 summonses of false trading in 2008, which merited a more serious penalty (Note 3).
The Deputy Magistrate Winston Leung Wing Chung considered the original sentence was sufficient to punish the defendant and reflect the nature of Chan’s wrongdoing (Note 4).
Notes:
- Please see the SFC’s press releases dated 13 January 2012, 23 January 2014, 11 April 2014 and 30 April 2014.
- The SFC alleged that Chan manipulated the share price of both stocks to create a higher nominal and closing price through small orders before profiting by selling larger parcels of the same shares at the higher prices. This caused a false or misleading appearance with respect to the markets for the two stocks. Chan made a profit of approximately $50,000.
- Please see the SFC’s press release dated 22 October 2008.
- One month’s imprisonment was imposed for each charge, to be served concurrently.
