Singapore, 15 July 2022… Ms Lee Ying Hui (Lee) was today convicted and fined $20,000 for carrying out fund management business without a capital markets services licence.

2. Ms Lee pleaded guilty to the charge under section 82 of the Securities and Futures Act (SFA). Between December 2017 and June 2022, Ms Lee made arrangements with six investors to trade on their behalf in their personal trading accounts. The trades conducted by Ms Lee were in leveraged foreign exchange and futures contracts. The total investment amount was $127,500.

3. Ms Lee and the investors agreed to share the profits generated from the trades equally, with losses borne by the investors. By June 2020, Ms Lee had received a total of $29,755 profits from three investors, before incurring aggregate losses of about $77,800 in the six investors’ accounts.

4. Ms Loo Siew Yee, Assistant Managing Director (Policy, Payments and Financial Crime), MAS, said, “MAS takes a serious view of persons carrying on regulated activities without appropriate licences. To safeguard investors’ interests, MAS’ regulatory framework permits only competent and professional persons to provide financial services. Members of the public are strongly advised not to deal with unregulated persons, and should check the Financial Institutions Directory, Register of Representatives and Investor Alert List on the MAS’ website before committing to financial transactions.”

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Additional information

(A) Section 82 of the Securities and Futures Act (Cap. 289, Rev Ed 2006)

(1) Subject to subsection (2) and section 99, no person shall, whether as principal or agent, carry on business in any regulated activity or hold himself out as carrying on such business unless he is the holder of a capital markets services licence for that regulated activity.

(2) Subsection (1) shall not apply to any person specified in the Third Schedule.

(3) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $150,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both and, in the case of a continuing offence, to a further fine not exceeding $15,000 for every day or part thereof during which the offence continues after conviction.

(B) Leveraged Foreign Exchange

Leveraged foreign exchange trading means entering into a spot foreign exchange contract where one counterparty provides to the other counterparty or the counterparty’s agent money, securities, property or other collateral which represents only a part of the value of the spot foreign exchange contract.

(C) Futures Contract

Futures contract means (a) an exchange-traded derivatives contract under which (i) one party agrees to transfer title to an underlying thing, or a specified quantity of an underlying thing, to another party at a specified future time and at a specified price payable at that future time; or (ii) the parties will discharge their obligations under the contract by settling the difference between the value of a specified quantity of an underlying thing agreed at the time of the making of the contract and at a specified future time; or (b) an exchange-traded derivatives contract which is an option on an exchange-traded derivatives contract mentioned in paragraph (a).

(D) Financial Institutions Directory

The Financial Institutions Directory on MAS’ website provides the list of entities regulated by MAS and can be accessible here.

(E) Register of Representatives

The Register of Representatives provides a list of individuals who conduct activities regulated by MAS and can be accessible here.

(F) Investor Alert List

The Investor Alert List (“IAL”) on MAS’ website provides the list of unregulated persons who, based on information received by MAS, may have been wrongly perceived as being licensed or regulated by MAS. This IAL is not exhaustive and is based on what was known to MAS at the time of publication. The IAL can be accessible here .