The Eastern Magistrates’ Court today convicted well-known movie producer Mr Wong Pak Ming of insider dealing in the shares of Pegasus Entertainment Holdings Limited (Pegasus) in a criminal prosecution brought by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) (Note 1).
The conviction, after a 16-day criminal trial, arises from Wong’s deliberate misuse of inside information acquired through his role as chairman and controlling shareholder of Pegasus and his decision to advise his sister to trade the company’s shares well before the inside information was disclosed to the market (Note 2).
The Court adjourned the case to 9 June 2026 for sentencing.
The Court heard that while negotiations were underway in 2017 for Wong to sell his controlling stake in Pegasus, he became aware of price‑sensitive and non‑public information, including the signing of a memorandum of understanding and the receipt of $10 million as earnest money from a potential buyer (Note 3).
Upon receiving the earnest money on 25 August 2017, Wong immediately started to transfer $2 million in total to his sister who started buying Pegasus shares on the same day. From 30 August 2017 onwards, Wong sent multiple WhatsApp messages to his sister, advising her on the timing and the price to buy Pegasus shares.
Consequently, between 25 August 2017 and 17 October 2017, Wong’s sister bought over nine million Pegasus shares at prices well below Pegasus’ ensuing market share price after the deal was announced on 25 October 2017 (Note 4).
His sister paid for the vast majority of Pegasus shares she bought with the monies he had transferred to her.
In arriving at the verdict, the Court found that Wong advised another person namely, his sister, to deal in Pegasus shares while he was the chairman and controlling shareholder of Pegasus and in possession of information which he knew was inside information in relation to Pegasus.
Mr Michael Duignan, the SFC’s Executive Director of Enforcement, said: “This case reaffirms that no one is above the law. Insider dealing in any form is a serious abuse of investor trust and undermines market integrity. Where confidential information is misused for personal gain, the SFC will have no hesitation in taking decisive action against wrongdoers to hold them publicly accountable for their misdeeds.”
Notes:
- Pegasus was listed on the Growth Enterprise Market of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong on 31 October 2012. The listing was transferred to the Main Board on 9 January 2015. The company is now known as Transmit Entertainment Holdings Limited (stock code:1326).
- Please see the SFC’s press releases dated 27 February 2025, 27 March 2025, 25 April 2025, 5 June 2025, 25 August 2025 and 24 October 2025.
- Earnest money is a sum of money paid by a potential buyer to the seller to demonstrate serious intent to purchase the seller’s assets.
- Wong’s sister did not sell all of these shares immediately after the announcement on 25 October 2017. Based on the SFC’s calculations using Pegasus’ post-announcement share price, it was estimated that she earned profits (including the realised and the notional) of more than HK$1 million from these transactions.
