Hong Kong's securities regulator is probing what it called «substandard work» by 15 firms in their roles as sponsors for initial public offerings.
In January, the regulator filed a suit against Standard Chartered, UBS and four other parties over the 2009 IPO of timber company China Forestry Holdings.
Thomas Atkinson, who heads enforcement at Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), told the Thomson Reuters Pan-Asian Regulatory Summit that the regulator was currently investigating 136 «active fraud cases», of which 28 were particularly serious.
The careless work from the 15 unnamed sponsors, as investment banks and securities firms that underwrite listings are called, caused billions of dollars in investment losses, Atkinson added.
IPO Misconduct
finews.asia reported in January this year when the SFC first broke the news. The local regulator accused UBS as well as Standard Chartered and others of market misconduct in the public listing of China Forestry Holdings.
The SFC also sued China Forestry itself, the company’s two co-founders Li Kwok Cheong and Li Han Chun, and KPMG, which was China Forestry’s auditor.
