The US securities regulator filed a complaint in court on Friday against a firm controlled by a Chinese billionaire and other traders, accusing them of making over $13 million from insider trading ahead of a bid by China's CNOOC for Canadian oil company Nexen Inc.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said the federal court in Manhattan had frozen assets worth over $38 million belonging to Hong Kong-based Well Advantage, controlled by businessman Zhang Zhirong, and other unnamed traders who used accounts in Hong Kong and Singapore to trade in Nexen stock. They made trading profits of $7 million and $6 million respectively by using inside knowledge of the merger to buy Nexen shares before the announcement, the SEC says.