Former MS employee banned for 14 months for maintaining undisclosed personal accounts

The SFC in HK has announced that Calvin Ho Kei Him, a former Morgan Stanley Asia research analyst employee, has been banned from the industry for 14 months in connection with undisclosed personal share dealing on behalf of his wife and mother in law.

The case highlights the importance of abiding by internal policies and procedures regarding personal share dealing and in particular that relating to connected persons.

The Commission again published the statement of findings and within that it says that Mr Ho breached the Code of Conduct by:

a) failing to disclose his related securities accounts and the stock trading activities to his employer;

b) failing to avoid conflicts of interest between the stock trading activities in the related accounts and his employment as a research associate; and

c)making false and/or misleading declarations to his employer about his and his wife’s stock trading activities.

The full report and a link to the Statement of Disciplinary Action can be found on the SFC website.

The issue was reportedly uncovered during a routine review of his email account.

The SFC stated that "Candid disclosure is fundamental to the character of the licensed representative. . . "