Civil charges were brought by the Financial Markets Authority against two former senior executives and two shareholders in 2019 at the Auckland High Court. (file photo) Photo:
Two former senior executives of the former honey export company, Oceania Natural, breached market manipulation rules, the High Court has ruled.
Fourteen charges of market manipulation and breaches of disclosure rules were found proven against chief executive Wei (Walker) Zhong and marketing director Lei (Regina) Ding Seven.
The civil charges were brought by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) in 2019, and the court will hold a penalty hearing later.
Two other people - Zhongyang (Sean) Meng and Jiashun (Sam) Qian - last year admitted their wrongdoing in the matter and were ordered to pay penalties of $180,000 and $130,000 respectively last year.
FMA enforcement head Margot Gatland said such misconduct would not be tolerated.
"It can significantly undermine the integrity of New Zealand's markets and investor confidence," Gatland said.
"Equally, our market disclosure obligations are part of an overall disclosure regime that is the central tenet of transparent markets.
"Directors should remain aware of their disclosure obligations, especially when trading their own company's shares."
Oceania Natural had a checkered existence, listing on the the stock exchange start-up companies' market, NXT, in 2016 before delisting two years later, and going into liquidation in 2019.
FMA had alleged the four had colluded in trying to lift the company's share price and give a false impression on the liquidity of the company's shares by trading using other people's identities and not disclosing trading in the company's shares.