Hong Kong’s financial regulator has revoked the licences of Union Securities and its two responsible officers, Ma Kin Chung and Ms Cheng Tai Ha, following a probe showing that the firm, with the involvement of the pair, misappropriated around $400,000 from two clients.

Hong Kong’s financial regulator has revoked the licences of Union Securities Limited and its two responsible officers, Ma Kin Chung and Ms Cheng Tai Ha, following a probe showing that the firm, with the involvement of the pair, misappropriated around $400,000 from two clients.

The Securities and Futures Commission slapped a lifetime ban on both persons, preventing them from re-entering the industry.

Setting out what happened, the SFC said that under the term of its licence, Union Securities wasn’t allowed to hold client assets and had to place all orders with an execution broker.  The funds were deposited into an account controlled by Ma in the name of Union Securities’ predecessor which Ma had represented to the SFC to have been ceased to be used. Bogus statements were then issued to the two clients.

Ma and Cheng fled Hong Kong in late 2012 and Union Securities’ premises were vacated. The investigation also found that Union Securities provided false and/or misleading information to the SFC by omitting an overdraft in its financial returns submitted under the SFC rules.