Importance of IP Address

During an investigation into market misconduct, SFC often demands the clients' IP addresses from securities firms for the purpose of ascertaining who are actually placing the orders.

As announced by SFC on 13 Feb 2014, the Eastern Magistrates' Court convicted Mr Ng Kai Chak on two charges of misleading SFC during an SFC investigation. Ng pleaded guilty and was fined a total of $16,000. The court also ordered him to pay SFC’s investigation costs.

During an SFC investigation into market manipulation in the shares of Sino-Tech International Holdings Limited, Ng twice misled SFC investigators about who controlled his securities account by claiming that he had personally placed the relevant buy and sell orders for the Sino-Tech shares in his account.

However, the SFC investigation revealed that Ng could not have operated the account because the orders were placed through the IP address assigned to the workplace of Mr Wong Chun. Ng allowed Wong to access and use his online securities trading account and it was Wong who placed the relevant orders.

As a result, SFC is separately prosecuting Wong for market manipulation. The case is set for a pre-trial review on 20 Feb 2014.