Hong Kong’s Court of First instance also ordered a re-trial for Simon Chui Wing Nin, a former assistant director of finance at CITIC Pacific, who was convicted and jailed for 15 months in November last year.
The court said the original trial magistrate “did not give adequate reasons in his decision when dismissing the defendant’s arguments concerning evidence given by an expert witness about the price sensitivity of the information that the Securities and Futures Commission alleges was in Chui’s possession”.
The regulator alleged that Chui was aware that CITIC Pacific had incurred material mark to market losses on several target redemption forward contracts entered into by CITIC Pacific to hedge its position in funding an Australian subsidiary and that this information constituted inside information.
Chui’s lawyer had argued that the expert’s opinion was “deficient” but the magistrate dismissed the arguments. However, granting the appeal, Justice Bokhary said the arguments put forward by Chui’s lawyer needed to be addressed by the magistrate in giving his reasons because giving adequate reasons is "a principle of paramount importance in the common law system".
