The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has banned Mr Lam Yuk Wai, a former staff of HSBC Broking Securities (Asia) Limited, HSBC Broking Futures (Asia) Limited, HSBC Broking Futures (Hong Kong) Limited and HSBC Broking Forex (Asia) Limited (collectively, HSBC Broking), from re-entering the industry for life (Note 1).
The disciplinary action follows an SFC investigation which found that between September 2011 and July 2015, Lam had:
- conducted over 100 unauthorized transactions in the accounts of seven clients, causing them to suffer substantial losses;
- deceived his clients by providing them with false and misleading account information which substantially overstated the equity value of their accounts, with an intent to conceal the extent of their investment losses; and
- attempted to conceal his misconduct from HSBC Broking by creating deceptive telephone calls in which he pretended to engage in conversations with clients and take order instructions from them.
As a result of Lam’s misconduct, HSBC Broking had paid over $70 million to the affected clients to compensate for their losses (Note 2).
The SFC considers that Lam’s dishonesty calls into serious question his fitness and properness to be a licensed person and decided to ban him for life.
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Notes:
- Lam was licensed to carry on Type 1 (dealing in securities), Type 2 (dealing in futures contracts), Type 3 (leveraged foreign exchange trading) and Type 4 (advising on securities) regulated activities under the Securities and Futures Ordinance. He was accredited to HSBC Broking Securities (Asia) Limited, HSBC Broking Futures (Asia) Limited and HSBC Broking Forex (Asia) Limited from 15 January 2008 to 29 July 2015. He was also accredited to HSBC Broking Futures (Hong Kong) Limited from 15 January 2008 to 22 January 2013. Lam is currently not licensed by the SFC.
- HSBC Broking has reported Lam’s misconduct to the Police.
