The Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong has suspended Mr Hui Lam Chiu, a former responsible officer of Guoyuan Securities Brokerage (Hong Kong) Ltd (Guoyuan), for six months until 18 November.

The disciplinary action follows the SFC’s sanction against Guoyuan over its breach of the anti-money laundering guidelines in failing to conduct proper enquiries and scrutiny to mitigate the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing when processing third-party fund deposits and withdrawals for clients between September 2010 and July 2012.

Hui was the responsible officer and senior management officer responsible. He was also one of the people responsible for ensuring that the third-party fund transfers were in compliance with anti-money laundering rules.

The SFC found that Guoyuan’s breaches were partly attributable to Hui’s failure to discharge his duties to ensure that all reasonable measures were taken to mitigate the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing. In particular, Hui failed to ensure that:

• Guoyuan conducted proper enquiries and followed up on some of the third party fund transfers despite the presence of a number of red flags suggesting that they were unusual and/or potentially suspicious; and
• Guoyuan’s procedures for dealing with the transfers were effective.

The SFC took Hui’s otherwise clean disciplinary record into account.