A Hong Kong tribunal has banned a hedge fund manager and the firm from trading in the jurisdiction for four years after admissions over insider dealing.

A Hong Kong tribunal has banned a hedge fund manager and the firm from trading in the jurisdiction for four years after admissions over insider dealing.

The Market Misconduct Tribunal has determined that Tiger Asia Management, or Tiger Asia, and two of its senior officers, Bill Sung Kook Hwang and Raymond Park engaged in market misconduct in Hong Kong. The MMT has ordered that Tiger Asia and Hwang be banned from trading securities in Hong Kong for a period of four years (the maximum period is five years) without leave of the court. The MMT has also issued cease and desist orders against both Tiger Asia and Hwang, the tribunal said in a statement.

Although the MMT found that Park had engaged in market misconduct, they decided to make no order in relation to him given the evidence that he has suffered an incurable and seriously debilitating brain injury and is in no position to pose any threat to the integrity of the Hong Kong market.

Tiger Asia and Hwang had argued no orders should be made against them by the MMT.

The firm, Hwang and Park admitted they broke Hong Kong’s laws prohibiting insider dealing when dealing in the shares of Bank of China Limited and of China Construction Bank Corporation in December 2008 and January 2009 and manipulated the price of CCB shares in January 2009, the statement continued.

The MMT found that Hwang’s conduct constituted "serious misconduct" and show that "little trust can be placed in Bill Hwang’s integrity".

The body warned that "this [punishment] heralds a sterner approach in respect of protective measures provided under our law. We are, however, unanimously of the view that the protection of our market is a matter of such public importance, and cold shoulder orders so central to providing that protection, that market operators who, by their actions, show they cannot be trusted must from now on expect orders that exclude them from the market for more lengthy periods of time".

The Securities and Futures Commission’s executive director of enforcement, Mark Steward, said: "Tiger Asia and Hwang abused the trust of the Hong Kong market, flouted Hong Kong’s laws and damaged the financial interests of thousands of investors who had no means of protecting themselves from such misconduct. They were wrong if they thought this could be done with impunity because they were situated beyond Hong Kong."