The Securities and Futures Commission secured a jail term and financial penalty against a film producer for insider dealing this week, and on the same day posted warnings about three online trading platforms it says solicited Hong Kong retail investors without a securities dealing licence. The commission administers the Investor Compensation Fund, built from annual levies on licensed intermediaries and capped at HK$500,000 per investor claim against any licensed firm that defaults or defrauds. That cap defines the outer edge of the SFC's retail compensation machinery. Unlicensed platforms fall outside it.

The insider dealing prosecution runs through Section 291 of the Securities and Futures Ordinance, carrying a maximum 10-year custodial term. The film producer's conviction is a public deterrent. The unlicensed platform warning marks the territory conviction cannot reach: retail investors who placed money with any of the three platforms before Wednesday hold no Investor Compensation Fund claim and no restitution path under the Ordinance. Operating a securities dealing business without a Type 1 licence is a criminal offence under Section 114 of the Securities and Futures Ordinance; the maximum penalty is a HK$5 million fine and seven years' imprisonment, and those are the charges the SFC's Enforcement Division can now bring against any of the three named platforms still taking client money.