A Hong Kong court has sentenced veteran film producer and actor Raymond Wong Pak-ming to five months in prison for sharing insider information with his sister to trade shares in an entertainment company he chaired in 2017.
However, the 80-year-old will not have to begin serving the sentence immediately, after Magistrate Ko Wai-hung granted him bail pending appeal on Tuesday.
Ko said he would not consider a suspended sentence or any non-custodial punishment for Wong, who was convicted of insider trading.
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While acknowledging Wong’s contributions to the film industry, the magistrate said it did not justify a more lenient sentence.
“Even [Wong] has a good background and contributed his whole life to filmmaking … this, however, would not constitute a special reason [for the court] to hand down a suspended sentence or community service order,” Ko said.
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The court found that Wong had advised his younger sister, Jenny Wong, between August 25 and October 17, 2017, to conduct large-scale trades in shares of Transmit Entertainment, a television series production company formerly known as Pegasus Entertainment Holdings, which he controlled at the time.