The Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong has banned a former Bank of East Asia employee from re-entering the industry for eight months from 19 January 2016 to 18 September 2016.
The financial watchdog found that Liu Hsiang-wen had failed to notify the SFC of her criminal conviction in Taiwan in 2010 for promoting and selling offshore funds to Taiwan investors without regulatory approval when she was a licensed representative accredited to CITIC Securities Brokerage (HK) Limited and CITIC Securities Futures (HK) Limited.
Liu pleaded guilty to a charge for contravention of Article 16 of Taiwan’s Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Act and was sentenced by the Taiwan Taipei District Court on 4 November 2010 to four months’ imprisonment and a fine of NT$1.2 million, suspended for four years. Liu was also ordered to pay a total sum of NT$300,000 to Taiwan’s National Treasury.
False Declarations
The SFC also found that Liu had made false declarations to the Bank of East Asia Limited, her subsequent employer, in that she did not disclose the criminal conviction in the job application form and self-declaration form submitted to the bank in 2012.
Liu is currently not licensed by the SFC or registered with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
