Hong Kong SFC Visits Huatai Financial Holdings Hong Kong Office for Investigation: Concerns Involve Clients Using Insider Information to Short-Sell Futu and Tiger Brokers

TechFlow reports that on September 5, according to Caixin, multiple sources revealed that the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has visited the office of Huatai Financial Holdings (Hong Kong) located at the Central Centre in Hong Kong to conduct an investigation, with some employees having been questioned. The reason for the investigation is that certain clients' trading activities at this brokerage may be related to the US stock options insider trading incident involving Futu Holdings and Tiger Securities in May of this year. Late yesterday, individuals close to Huatai Financial Holdings (Hong Kong) stated that the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission's investigation is unrelated to the company and only involves individual clients. Unlike the securities trading system in mainland China, regulators in the Hong Kong market cannot directly identify individual clients' trading behaviors from the exchange level. Therefore, investigating improper trading conduct by brokerage clients typically requires cooperation from the broker.

In earlier reports, it was noted that 45 individuals have been identified in the Futu-Tiger options insider trading case, with total illicit profits amounting to $155 million.