HK SFC Orders 10 Brokers to Freeze Client Accounts Linked to a Suspected Social Media Ramp-and-Dump Scam

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) announced today that it has placed restriction notices to 10 brokers, banning them from dealing with or processing certain assets held in 31 trading accounts.

According to the official press release, these accounts are related to a suspected social media ramp-and-dump scam involving the shares of a company listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited between November 2021 and June 2022.

The ten brokers involved in the scam are as follows: China Industrial Securities International Brokerage Limited, Quam Securities Limited, Futu Securities International (Hong Kong) Limited, Imperium International Securities Limited, Lego Securities Limited, Phillip Securities (Hong Kong) Limited, Silverbricks Securities Company Limited, uSmart Securities Limited, Valuable Capital Limited and Webull Securities Limited.

In the interest of the investing public or in the public interest, the HK watchdog prohibits the above brokers, without the SFC’s prior written consent, from disposing of or dealing with, or assisting, counselling or procuring another person to dispose of or deal with, any assets in any way in the trading accounts up to a certain amount, including:

• entering into transactions in respect of any securities;

• processing any withdrawals or transfers of securities and/or cash on the instructions of any authorized person of the accounts or by any person acting on their behalf;

• disposing of or dealing with any securities and/or cash on the instructions of any authorized person of the accounts or by any person acting on their behalf; and/or

• assisting another person to dispose of any relevant property or deal with any relevant property in a specified manner. The brokers are also required to notify the SFC if they receive any of these instructions.