In Hong Kong the Securities and Futures Commission has banned former employees of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, from re-entering the industry for life following their criminal convictions.
The District Court found that Chau Hang Yu and Steve Chow Chun Yin, both of whom were responsible for selling and promoting investment products at HSBC and knew one another at the material times, made false claims in 2012 and 2014 that certain HSBC customers had agreed to subscribe for unit trust funds (UTFs).
The pair received sales commission after HSBC processed the subscription orders in the belief that they had sold the UTFs to the customers when in fact it was not the case.
Convicted of Fraud
The District Court also found that Chau referred her customers to Chow so that he could obtain more sales commission after she had reached the cap for receiving sales commission. Chau later asked Chow for customer referral fees. He gave her $100,000.
On 23 February 2016, Chau was sentenced to 12 months of imprisonment after her conviction for two counts of fraud under the Theft Ordinance. Chow was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment after his conviction for two counts of fraud under the Theft Ordinance and one count of offering an advantage to an agent under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) considers Chau and Chow are not fit and proper persons to be licensed or registered to carry on regulated activities as a result of their convictions.
