Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) conducted a joint operation codenamed “Fuse” on 10 and 11 March 2026 targeting insider dealing and involving corruption.
Senior executives of three licensed corporations, including two securities firms and a hedge fund management firm, were persons of interest in the case, according to an SFC statement.
The announcement did not name the firms, but Reuters reported on Thursday that brokerage Guotai Junan International said that it had been raided this week.
The news agency also reported that sources familiar with the matter identified CLSA, a unit of Citic Securities and hedge fund Infini Capital as the other firms. The sources were not authorised to speak to the media and declined to be identified.
During the joint operation, officers of the SFC and the ICAC searched a total of 14 locations, including the offices of the licenced corporations, as well as residences of the arrestees.
The ICAC also arrested six men and two women, aged between 35 and 60. The arrestees included, among others, senior executives of the two licenced securities firms and the licensed hedge fund management firm, as well as a middleman.
It is suspected that senior executives of the licenced securities firms had accepted bribes over $4m from the owner of the licensed hedge fund management firm for disclosing confidential information regarding share placements of various Hong Kong-listed companies before such information was publicly announced.
Armed with such confidential information, the licensed hedge fund management firm established short positions for its hedge fund in the relevant stocks by short-selling the stocks in the market and/or entering into short equity swap contracts. When the share placements were publicly announced, the share prices of the concerned stocks declined, and the hedge fund allegedly made profits of around $315m from its short positions.
The joint operation stemmed from the SFC’s initial investigation of the suspected insider dealing activities, which uncovered potential corruption. The case was subsequently referred to the ICAC for investigation into suspected corruption, while the SFC focused on insider dealing and other misconduct under the Securities and Futures Ordinance.
