China regulator fines hospital owner 100 million yuan for insider trading

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's securities regulator has imposed a fine of more than 100 million yuan ($15.11 million) on the owner of a hospital for insider trading, and confiscated a further 34 million yuan of his illegal gains.

Liu Yuejun, the actual controller of the Red Cross Hospital in southwest China's Sichuan Province, had bought shares in Shenzhen-listed Hangkeng Medical Group Co Ltd knowing that his hospital would be selling a treatment centre to the company, China's Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said in a statement on its website on Friday.

Having purchased more than 7.6 million shares, Liu made over 30 million yuan on the trade, CSRC said. Reuters could not reach Liu for comment.

Two other traders were also fined after they profited from stock they bought on the basis of inside information about Hengkang's purchases, CSRC said.

"By engaging in insider trading they have severely damaged market order...and the CSRC has severely punished them for this in accordance with the law," the statement said.

"The CSRC will from start to finish strictly control and crack down on such behaviour, and not allow any opportunities or profits for people who knowingly violate the law," it said.

In the first eight months of 2017, the CSRC imposed fines worth nearly 7 billion yuan on companies and individuals, a 141 percent increase from the year before, according to state media reports.

In April, Liu Shiyu, the chairman of the CSRC, said that the stock exchange overseers must "brandish the sword" to combat any activities that disturb market order.

($1 = 6.6185 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Christian Shepherd; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)