A hedge fund company director has been jailed four-and-a-half years and barred from acting as a director for 10 years by the Court of First Instance after admitting to 19 counts of false accounting.

In June 2004 Police arrested the 61-year-old upon receiving a Securities & Futures Commission report that he allegedly misappropriated clients' funds. He claimed to have moved the money to other designated hedge fund companies for further investment, but the companies and bank accounts were formed and controlled by him. No money had ever been invested as alleged.

He also gave false accounting documents and quarterly statements to the auditors and investors, involving $363 million in losses.