Organization

He's currently serving a 10-year jail sentence for fraud and theft of HK$134m of client money. Regarding client Yu Quan Li, in Suen's sentencing, the judge remarked "I accept that the monies from Yu were very likely originated from organised, illegal prostitution for which Yu pleaded guilty to the related offences and was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment by the Mainland court."

He intercepted payments due by UBS to clients who were overcharged in prior transactions. He legally changed his name to client names twice, getting new IDs to open bank accounts to receive the money. He also sent funds to sellers of handbags and watches, and sold watches to Sun Moon International Ltd. He was arrested at HK Airport in Dec-2020 heading for the UK with Rolex watch tags and immigration papers for him and his dog. His wife is already there.

This trial had to be run twice after acting Chairman Kenneth Kwok Hing Wai, who heard the case from 2018 to early 2022, was unable to continue due to illness (he died in Oct-2022).

"Mr Boyton said Yu Quan-li and Zhu Lijuan were unable to testify at the trial because they were convicted of running a prostitution ring in Nanjing, China, in 2020 as shown by the internet reports attached to the written mitigation"

Mr Suen is jailed for 6 months for contempt of court.

The SFC's investigation followed the Webb-site article "Hiding behind the cornerstones" of 3-Oct-2016, which also featured a number of other dubious transactions.

Mr Suen is found in contempt of court for having "dealt with" UK flats under development which were the subject of an injunction by assigning them to a BVI company that he owned. In the event, his assets were frozen and the company defaulted on stage payments for the apartments, so the developer forfeited the deposits. He is also held in contempt for failing to disclose his assets.

Oops! Paragraphs of the liquidators' writ against sponsor UBS are struck out, because under High Court Rules for companies winding up, the claims should have been made by summons, not writ. The obvious question is: why didn't the solicitors, Karas LLP, advise their client of this? Notably the writ was filed only a day before the 6th anniversary of liquidators' appointment, after which the claim would be time-barred. Now the question is whether the Summons will be time-barred.

The Chairman & CEO of AMTD applies for anonymity in his appeal and is refused. The SFC has ordered him banned for 2 years for breaches of the Code of Conduct. The substantive appeal will be heard later. The subject matter appears to relate to our article "Hiding behind the cornerstones" of 3-Oct-2016.

The tribunal concludes that it was "as likely as not" that Mr Cai was appointed as the team Principal for the doomed IPO of China Metal Recycling, and contradictory reports from UBS suggest it could also have been Michael Ngai Ming Tak, who also denied it. The standard of proof, namely the balance of probabilities, was not met.

For a cut-and-paste client signature on an instruction letter.

UBS gets a 2-month reduction in its 1-year suspension for good behaviour. The firm that brought you China Forestry, China Metal Recycling and Tianhe Chemicals (all now delisted) is back in business.

Shocking dishonest behaviour in which they pocketed the difference between a limit order price and a better price obtained in the market for bonds and structured notes. UBS was also fined HK$375m in March for its duff IPO sponsorships.

As we predicted in March when UBS was fined but one of its clients was not named, this relates to the IPO of China Metal Recycling, listed in 2009 and ordered in 2015 to be wound up. The IPO was jointly sponsored by UBS and China Merchants Securities.

Over the IPOs of China Forestry in 2009 (now delisted), Tianhe Chemicals (1619) in 2014 and a third as-yet unnamed listing application, which is almost certainly China Metal Recycling (Holdings) Ltd, listed in 2009 and ordered in 2015 to be wound up.

The firm only sponsored 2 IPOs in 2009, so this almost certainly relates to China Metal Recycling (Holdings) Ltd. In 2015, the SFC obtained a court order to wind it up. The other sponsor was UBS AG. We note that Mr Wu is still an INED of Jiu Rong (2358), a member of the "Enigma Network".

Comment: this probably relates to the China Forestry listing, jointly sponsored with UBS. Mr Hsu abandoned his appeal to the Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal on 6-Jul-2018. The appeals by the two sponsors are set to be heard in March 2019.

The ICAC describes UBS AG Hong Kong Branch as a "foreign" investment bank. We're not sure what point they are trying to make. By the same token HSBC could be described as "foreign" as it is incorporated in the UK with a head office in London. Tu Bing was convicted for fleecing a Shenzhen-based asset management customer for 20% of his trading gains.

He is alleged to have charged a personal 20% performance fee without his employer's consent

A graphic from this week's judgment on China Metal Recycling (0773) seems strangely familiar.

...and there goes HK$11.09bn of market capitalisation - it will be interesting to see how much of the last reported net assets of $7.10bn (30-Jun-2012) the liquidators are able to find. It's fairly safe to say that the sponsors, UBS and China Merchant Securities, are going to face an investigation by the SFC.

Webb-site notes that Helen Yang Lijuan was a licensed representative of Credit Suisse (HK) Ltd from 11-Aug-2009 to 22-Mar-2012. Credit Suisse was the joint sponsor of the re-flotation of China Resources Cement (1313) in a prospectus dated 21-Sep-2009.

The other bank was UBS AG.