There could be a ton of reasons for terminating licensed staff, given that the reason is accurately reported to SFC.
The Eastern Magistrates' Court convicted QMIS Securities Limited (QMIS) and its former RO, Mr Huang Kuang Cheng, of making false or misleading representations when submitting licensing information to SFC.
On 3 Jan 2014, QMIS submitted to SFC a form concerning the cessation of a staff member's status as a SFC-licensed representative. In the form, "job rotation" was cited as the reason for the staff member to cease to be a SFC-licensed representative.
The form was designed for licensees to fill in to notify SFC of changes in the information that they have given to SFC in their initial applications as specified in S.135 of the SFO and Parts 1 to 3 of Schedule 3 to the S&F (Licensing and Registration) (Information) Rules, i.e. statutory requirements.
Huang declared that all information provided in the form was complete, true and correct. However, the Court found that QMIS terminated the staff member's licensed status after he admitted to Huang that he had misappropriated client money, and as such, the provision of "job rotation" in the form as the reason for cessation was misleading.
Obviously QMIS attempted to cover up the client money misappropriation case for avoiding SFC investigation by providing the false reason of cessation. This is definitely unwise.
