Hong Kong Producer Raymond Wong Sentenced to Five Months in Insider Trading Case

Hong Kong film figure Raymond Wong Pak-ming, who rose to fame with the "Happy Ghost" film series and also branched out into music, has been convicted in a stock trading case involving Pegasus Entertainment Holdings Limited. On Wednesday, a Hong Kong court sentenced him to five months in prison, fined him more than HK$99,000 (about NT$400,000), and ordered him to pay roughly HK$374,000 (about NT$1.5 million) in investigation costs. The news has stunned the entertainment industry.

Wong Convicted of Insider Dealing, HK$2 Million Transfer to Sister Proves Key

After founding Pegasus Motion Pictures in 2009, Wong remained active in the film and television industry. Recently, however, he was charged with insider trading. According to prosecutors, as chairman and director of Pegasus Entertainment Holdings Limited, he allegedly used inside information between August and October 2017 to encourage others to purchase company shares. The most crucial piece of evidence was that he had transferred HK$2 million (about NT$8.16 million) to his sister, Wong Kit-chun, along with a message instructing her to buy shares. Last month, a judge found him guilty of insider dealing.

Reason for the Five-Month Sentence Revealed: Judge Cites Damage to Public Confidence

On Wednesday, the Hong Kong court sentenced Wong to five months in prison, fined him more than HK$99,000, and ordered him to pay about HK$374,000 in investigation costs. The judge noted that as a shareholder of a listed company, Wong's conduct undermined public confidence in Hong Kong's securities market. Although he had dedicated his life to the Hong Kong film industry and the actual gains his sister received were relatively small, his actions affected public confidence, the judge said, declining to accept reputational harm or his physical and mental health as grounds for a reduced sentence.

When Wong previously appeared in court, he argued in his defense regarding the insider trading case that the check given to his sister was meant to handle their brother's property in mainland China. As for telling her to "buy all" the company's shares, he claimed that because his sister cried often as a child, he would speak in opposites and tell her to "cry all you want." By the same logic, he said, telling her to "buy all" actually meant telling her not to buy. The judge found this defense absurd and far-fetched.

Between 1991 and 1993, Wong went on to establish Mandarin Films Distribution Limited, whose productions repeatedly broke Hong Kong box office records, including "Aces Go Places," "Happy Ghost" and "All's Well, Ends Well." In 2009, Wong founded Pegasus Motion Pictures with his son. Many actors and directors rose to fame through films Wong helped produce, including Jacky Cheung, Sylvia Chang, Louis Koo, Leslie Cheung, Donnie Yen and Lynn Hung.

Source: NOWnews — https://www.nownews.com/news/6844957