The Market Misconduct Tribunal (MMT) has today fined AcrossAsia Limited (AcrossAsia) $600,000, its former chairman Mr Albert Saychuan Cheok $800,000, and chief executive officer Mr Vicente Binalhay Ang $600,000 after finding they had failed to disclose inside information to the public as soon as reasonably practicable as required under the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO).
The MMT took into consideration the admissions by AcrossAsia and Ang of their misconduct at an earlier stage of the proceedings brought by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) in determining the fines against them. The MMT also ordered Cheok and Ang to complete a SFC approved training programme on compliance with the inside information disclosure requirements.
The MMT further ordered AcrossAsia, Cheok and Ang to pay the Government of the HKSAR the costs of the MMT proceedings, and to pay the SFC’s investigation and legal costs.
This is the first concluded MMT case in relation to late disclosure of inside information commenced by the SFC.
On 7 November 2016, the MMT found that AcrossAsia, Cheok and Ang had breached the disclosure requirement under the SFO after they admitted to having been late in disclosing inside information about a petition filed against AcrossAsia in Indonesia and a related court summons. The MMT accepted the basis of their admissions that the negligence of Cheok and Ang caused the misconduct and found that AcrossAsia’s disclosure on the inside information to the public was about a week late.