Liu, Lit Man 廖烈文

Mr Best fails in his attempt to have the SFC's petition against him struck out.

At last, a bit of action on part of what we call the "Chung Nam Network". The SFC is pursuing 4 current and 8 former directors.

The petition, not yet published, seeks disqualification and compensation orders against 4 respondents relating to the aborted investment in Liu's holdings in 2010/11, which caused a loss to Freeman of HK$76.8m. At the time, Quincy Hui Kwong Hei and Lo Kan Sun were Managing Directors, Sue Au Shuk Yee was Executive Director and Agustin V Que was an INED of Freeman.

Unable to obtain legal title to the shares in Liu's holdings which Freeman has already paid for, it sells the beneficial interest back to the parents of Andrew Liu, it's Chairman and substantial shareholder, and they benefit by the same amount, HK$76.8m.

But Mr & Mrs Liu will continue to hold the shares "on trust" for Freeman unless and until they can execute the share transfer under the terms of a deed between the shareholders of Liu Holdings and its M&A.