Hong Kong Court Sentences Ex-HKMEx Chairman to Four Years Jail

Source: Regulation Asia Editors, Regulation Asia 2020-07-27

The 62-year-old Barry Cheung was found guilty a week earlier of conspiracy to defraud the SFC into letting HKMEx keep its licence to provide automated trading services in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s District Court on Thursday (23 July) sentenced the ex-chairman of the now-defunct HKMEx (Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange) to four years in prison for defrauding the SFC (Securities and Futures Commission) and for cheating a company out of HKD 30 million (USD 3.9 million).

The 62-year-old Barry Cheung Chun-yuen was found guilty a week earlier of conspiracy to defraud – a count he faced jointly with HKMEx’s former chief financial officer Jacky Choi Tat-ying, who has been sentenced to just one year’s imprisonment, after he had pleaded guilty and become a prosecution witness against Chueng.

The two had conspired to hide HKMEx’s actual financial position between May 2012 and May 2013 to mislead the SFC into letting it keep its licence to provide automated trading services in Hong Kong.

Conspiracy to defraud carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison, but jail terms are capped at seven years at the District Court.

Cheung was also found guilty of fraud, for cheating a company called Sinomax Finance out of HKD 30 million, which he tried to use to keep HKMEx afloat.

District Court judge Amanda Woodcock said the case was a “monumental fall from grace” for Cheung, but that there was a need to impose a deterrent sentence due to the severity of his attempt to manipulate the SFC.

She noted that Choi had lesser culpability, as he was merely acting upon his employer’s instructions with “a sense of misguided loyalty”.

Cheung was formerly an adviser to the ex-chief executive of Hong Kong, CY Leung.

Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange

Cheung Chun-yuen

Hong Kong Court Sentences Ex-HKMEx Chairman to Four Years Jail

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