Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission obtains three-year management disqualification order against former Anxin-China Holdings financial controller

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission obtained a Court of First Instance order disqualifying Ms Yang Shuyan, former financial controller of Anxin-China Holdings Limited, from being a director, liquidator, receiver or manager of a business or property, and from being involved in the management of any Hong Kong listed or unlisted corporation for three years without the court’s leave. The court made the order after Yang admitted she failed to discharge her duties with due and reasonable skill, care and diligence, including in ascertaining Anxin’s financial position and investigating discrepancies between banking records and management accounts. The SFC found that Anxin grossly overstated its cash position between 2011 and 2015, with the audited consolidated financial statements for the years ended 31 December 2012 and 2013 overstating cash by HKD 1.26 billion and HKD 1.73 billion respectively, and that false bank records were provided to auditors during a 2014 audit to conceal the overstatement. Yang, who oversaw the audit and prepared the financial statements, did not take reasonable steps that would have enabled her to identify the misstatement, accepted the special investigation team’s conclusions without verification, and did not raise concerns with the independent forensic investigator; the court described her negligence as "nothing short of breath-taking". The judgment was dated 25 February 2025 (HCMP314/2020), and the SFC noted it previously obtained an eight-year director disqualification order on 24 June 2021 against a former Anxin executive director in related proceedings against former senior management.