US allegations of insider trading against a Hong Kong couple highlight what many here believe is an entrenched culture of sharp practice in a city claiming to be a world financial centre.
A light regulatory regime, lightning fast flows of information and gossip, plus a get-rich-quick-at-all-costs ethos make markets such as Hong Kong open to abuse, they say.
Hong Kongers Kan-king Wong and his wife Charlotte Ka On Wong Leung have been charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission with dealing in Dow Jones shares before a five billion dollar bid for the company by News Corp became public knowledge.
The pair allegedly borrowed 15 million dollars from various sources to buy 415,000 Dow Jones shares, acting on inside information just before it was announced that News Corp had made a bid for the financial news giant.
The offer sent the stock soaring almost 60 percent, producing an instant profit of some eight million dollars.
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