Financial Markets Authority files civil lawsuit over alleged manipulation in Oceania Natural shares

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has filed civil proceedings against four individuals in relation to Oceania Natural shares.

The proceedings relate to alleged breaches of market manipulation prohibitions and the disclosure obligations in the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013.

The FMA is seeking financial penalties.

The four individuals subject to the proceedings are: Wei (Walker) Zhong who was the executive chairman and CEO of Oceania Natural Ltg; Lei (Regina) Ding, marketing director of Oceania Natural; Zhongyang (Sean) Meng, a previous director of Oceania Natural; and a fourth individual who has interim name suppression.

The case centres on the trading in shares of Oceania Natural Limited between May 2016 and April 2017.

Oceania Natural - a health food supplements company - listed on the NXT board on the 31st March 2016 and delisted on the 29th June 2018.

The trading was referred to the FMA by NZX in December 2016.

There are fifteen causes of action being brought before the High Court by the FMA.

Nine relate to alleged breaches of disclosure obligations and six relate to alleged breaches of market manipulation prohibitions.

The FMA's head of enforcement, Karen Chang, said maintaining market integrity is core business for the FMA.

"The FMA has brought, and will continue to bring enforcement action where it finds potential evidence of market manipulation and potential breaches of disclosure obligations," she said in a statement.