Former Everbright exec goes to court

Yang Jianbo, former Everbright Securities executive, meets the media after a trial on Thursday. He is suing the China Securities Regulatory Commission after it fined and banned him for life last year from the securities industry for insider trading. Gong Lei / Xinhua

Ex-trader suing CSRC over lifetime ban, case adjourned to a later date

The lawsuit of a former Everbright Securities executive against the China Securities Regulatory Commission went to trial on Thursday.

Yang Jianbo, former general manager of the strategic transaction department of the Chinese brokerage firm, is suing the commission after it fined and banned him for life last year from the securities industry for insider trading.

Everbright's annual profit dented by CSRC fine

Everbright Securities fined for insider trading

Yang said at the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court that the commission's punishment violated the law and infringed on his legal rights. He asked the court to rule that the commission revoke the punishment.

There are four main disputed issues between Yang and the CSRC: whether the identified insider information is insider information; whether the behavior of Everbright Securities can be considered insider trading; whether Yang is a directly accountable person; and whether any illegal gains from futures trading can be confirmed.

Based on the Securities Law and a futures trading rule, the CSRC can confirm that Everbright Securities' behavior is insider trading, a CRSC agent told the court.

According to the agent, a flawed operation by Everbright Securities had a big influence on the stock market, but the information was not made public for a long time, so it can be identified as insider information.

"The accuser (Yang) is one of the directly accountable persons because he took part in a meeting and made the decision after the abnormal trade was made," the CSRC agent said, adding that Yang also led traders in short selling index futures and exchange traded funds.

The abnormal trading last Aug 16 caused the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index to jump 5.96 percent in about three minutes, with a large number of purchase orders sent from Everbright Securities' account.