Veteran filmmaker Raymond Wong Pak-ming sentenced to five months in prison

Veteran filmmaker Raymond Wong Pak-ming was convicted of insider trading and sentenced to five months in prison. He was granted bail pending appeal.

80-year-old Raymond Wong is the chairman and controlling shareholder of Pegasus Entertainments Holdings Limited.

He was convicted of violating the Securities and Futures Ordinance and sentenced at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts.

The case alleges that in 2017, he negotiated with a third party to buy and sell shares of his company, during which time he instructed his sister to purchase shares at a specified price, profiting approximately HK$1.03 million.

During his plea for leniency, Wong’s lawyer said the case's long delay had placed immense psychological and emotional pressure on Wong, during which time he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and subjected to harassment and intimidation by triads.

The case had also severely impacted his family, with his wife suffering from depression.

The judge, in sentencing, acknowledged that the incident had severely damaged the defendant's reputation and family, but this did not constitute grounds for a special reduction in sentence. The delay in the case was also not unreasonable.

He set a starting point of nine months imprisonment, but considering the defendant's philanthropy, he deducted four months, sentencing Wong to five months in prison.