Dong Zhengqing (pictured), the former president of leading Chinese securities house Guangfa Securities, was jailed on Friday for insider trading. The FT reports that the prosecution comes as the Chinese government campaigns to restore investor confidence battered by widespread trading irregularities. Dong Zhengqing was sentenced to four years by the Tianhe district people’s court in Guangzhou.
The FT reports that China’s stock markets have a reputation for rampant insider trading, and that the Chinese government recently told half of the staff at the headquarters of the China Securities Regulatory Commission in Beijing to focus on insider trading, market manipulation and other trading irregularities.
A Shenzhen-based analyst told the FT that the rare prosecution and conviction was “quite a step in showing China’s determination to build stock market institutions.”
Photo source: China Daily
