Chim Pui-chung Faces Charges in Hong Kong
March 31, 2011
HONG KONG -- A controversial legislator and businessman was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit forgery and fraud, just days after he had sued executives of the watchdog Securities and Futures Commission seeking damages of 50 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$6.46 billion). The Commercial Crime Bureau arrested Legislative Council member Rickman Pui-Cicely on two counts of conspiracy to forge documents and one count of conspiracy to defraud the Securities and Futures Commission. The arrest marks a sharp escalation in a long-running battle between Mr. Rickman and the SFC. The outspoken stockbroker turned financier is an elected representative of Hong Kong's financial community in the colony's legislature. A stockbroker in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mr. Rickman represents the old guard of Hong Kong's small local brokers, who have resisted market reforms. Mr. Rickman, who is a member of the territory's Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange, has often been a potential kingmaker in elections to the stock exchange's ruling council. The police charges against Mr. Rickman and an assistant stem from an SFC investigation into alleged irregularities in the share dealings of a company chaired by Mr. Rickman, Lucky Man Properties Ltd., and the sale of two properties in 1992. On Thursday, Mr. Rickman paid HK$20 million in bail and surrendered his travel documents. Following his arrest, Mr. Rickman said in a press release that the charges stemmed from a ``political problem and personal disputes the aim of which is to smear me.'' He said he would contest the charges. Throughout his battle with the SFC, the tough-talking legislator has seemed to relish taking the spotlight, displaying a flair for showmanship. Earlier this week, Mr. Rickman claimed damages totaling HK$50 billion in a lawsuit against the chairman of the SFC and four other executives. Mr. Rickman alleges that a court petition filed by the SFC in an action to wind up a property company that he owns contained libelous remarks about him. In June, the SFC petitioned to wind up Mr. Rickman's 73%-owned Mandarin Resources Corp. on the grounds that Mr. Rickman had run the company in a manner unfairly prejudicial to minority shareholders. The SFC has said in the past that its investigation of Mr. Rickman isn't a vendetta. Mr. Rickman's feud with the SFC has struck a responsive chord among owners of some smaller local brokerage firms that have lost market share to large international firms. In the eyes of many such locals, the SFC has sided with large brokerage firms in its efforts to reform Hong Kong's market. This year, the regulator has prosecuted dozens of individuals from small brokerage firms for so-called rat trading and other offenses. In rat trading, a broker who has a buy or sell order takes advantage of price fluctuations during the day to buy or sell shares at a price more favorable to the broker and less favorable to the client. During elections for the Legislative Council last year, Mr. Rickman was quoted in the local press as calling for an amnesty for rat traders. A fund manager said many small brokers in Hong Kong ``have been playing football for the last 30 years, and the game is now tennis, and half the party doesn't know the game has changed.''
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