China securities watchdog punishes insider trading

BEIJING — The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has confiscated illegal earnings of and imposed huge fines on individuals involved in an insider trading case.

Three people were named in a CSRC statement for taking advantage of knowledge of a series of acquisitions by Shenzhen-listed Hengkang Medical Group Co Ltd.

Liu Yuejun, the actual controller of a hospital in Southwest China's Sichuan province, bought shares in Hengkang Medical via others' stock accounts before the hospital sold its treatment center to Hengkang Medical. He has to forfeit 34 million yuan (more than $5 million) and faces a fine of around 100 million yuan.

Likewise, Wang Guoxiang and Xue Bingyuan, who profited from the insider information of Hengkang Medical's acquisitions, also face confiscation of their illegal gains and fines.

In the first eight months, the CSRC has strengthened supervision partly by handing out more fines, nearly half of which were for insider trading. Those fines now total nearly 7 billion yuan, up 141 percent year-on-year.