A FORMER Chinese investment fund manager has lost a bid to dismiss charges by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that he made US$36 million from insider trading after being tipped about DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.’s acquisition by Comcast Corp. and Lattice Semiconductor Corp.’s planned acquisition by a private equity fund.

    U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken said the SEC had offered enough detail in its civil complaint against Michael Yin to support its claim that he misappropriated confidential information about the planned deals, denying a motion to dismiss the case Yin filed last June.

    Yin worked at Hong Kong-based Summitview Capital Management Ltd. before resigning in February 2017, around the time the SEC brought the insider trading charges, according to the agency. Summitview was not accused of wrongdoing and could not immediately be reached for comment.

    The agency said that Yin bought more than two million DreamWorks shares through five brokerage accounts in April 2016 shortly before the company’s acquisition by Comcast became public, causing its stock to surge and making Yin US$29 million.

    The agency said Yin may have been tipped off by his friend Ji Chaofeng, who worked for China-based Legend Capital. Legend was working at the time on a potential partnership with PAG Asia Capital, which in turn knew of the DreamWorks deal because it had made a rival offer for the company, the SEC said.

    The SEC said Ji controlled one of the five accounts and named him as a “relief defendant” for the purpose of seeking disgorgement of funds.  (SD-Agencies)