Securities Law : Insider Dealing in Hong Kong

Whilst the Taiwanese authorities’ investigations into possible insider dealing in securities on the part of family members of President Chen have caused widespread political instability on the Island, it is noteworthy that in Hong Kong insider dealing is both a civil wrong and a crime under the Securities and Futures Ordinance ("SFO").

As once observed by The Honourable Mr Justice McMahon, insider dealing is ‘the conscious use for the purpose of profit or of the avoidance of loss of confidential price-sensitive information to buy or sell shares to which that information relates, or the disclosure of confidential price-sensitive information to a person likely to use that information for that purpose’.