Huang Xiaoming implicated in stock manipulation scandal
BEIJING: Actor Huang Xiaoming has been implicated in China’s stock manipulation scandal.
Although there is no proof that he was involved in the pumpand-dump scheme uncovered by the stock market regulator in July, one of the 16 accounts used to trade and manipulate prices belonged to him.
Huang, 40, is the husband of actress Angelababy, 29.
According to a statement issued by his publicists, Gao Yong, the trader behind the racket, was not Huang’s acquaintance. The statement also denied that Huang was involved in any stock manipulation or any investigations related to the case.
Sources close to the China Securities Regulatory Commission said that Huang would not face punishment from the watchdog as he was not directly involved in the scheme.
His connection to the scandal came to light in July when the CSRC issued a statement about the findings of its investigation into stock manipulation of Shenzhen-listed Jinghua Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. from January to June 2015. The watchdog slapped a fine of 1.79 billion yuan on a man named Gao Yong for masterminding the scheme, which involved driving up the price of the stock and then selling it, a process known as “pump and dump.”
The CSRC said Gao, who made a profit of 897 million yuan, conducted the manipulation through 16 stock trading accounts which were not in his name but which he controlled. One of the accounts belonged to an individual surnamed Huang, the CSRC said.
It has been confirmed that the account was held by Huang, and was mainly used by his mother, Zhang Suxia, before she allowed Gao to use it for trading. The statement issued by Huang’s publicists did not comment on whether he was the person referred to in the CSRC statement or whether the account was used by his mother.
Although lending stock accounts to other traders contravenes the Securities Law, which specifies that any trading should be based on a realname system, such behaviour is common practice in China, said Tang Xin, a professor at Tsinghua University’s law school.