Caixin: Futu, Tiger Brokers Insider Trading Case Third Defendant is Honor Murray Yang Jingyao

BlockBeats News, July 24th, according to Caixin report, the highly publicized FUTU Holdings and Tiger Brokers US stock options insider trading case has seen two defendants appear, one individual and one investment institution. Now, another defendant has emerged in an attempt to unfreeze assets. According to a declaration submitted to a U.S. court on July 23rd, the third defendant to surface is Yang Jingyao, whose Chinese name is 杨敬尧 and has been a Hong Kong resident since 2020. Yang Jingyao claimed that his "personal assets far exceed his personal debts" and that he has "no outstanding debt to repay." According to public documents from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the largest single shareholder of the Hong Kong-listed company Honor Best International and the offeror of a previous mandatory general offer is also named Yang Jingyao.

HKEX documents show that Yang Jingyao of Honor Best International is 32 years old, and his mother is a wealthy individual from mainland China. Described as a businessman and private investor, Yang Jingyao has long invested in listed securities, IT enterprises, startups, and other financial assets through brokers and wholly-owned private investment companies established in Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands. However, there is currently no public evidence to indicate that the securities accounts or funds involved in the U.S. court restraining order are related to the failure of the Honor Best International offer.

On July 2nd, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating insider trading allegations brought by Haina International Group. In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Federal Court on June 29th, Haina International claimed that unknown insiders purchased bearish stock options of Chinese brokers' U.S. stocks before China's regulatory crackdown on FUTU and Tiger Brokers on May 22nd, at a cost of around $12 million, to gain at least $100 million in profit.