A fraudster and unsophisticated scam artist, Lawrence Li who operates Kohle Capital Markets in Hong Kong has sought to extort a newswire and coerce them to publish fake, market manipulating news.
Lawrence Li from Kohle Capital sought to extort a newswire service that provides an unlimited access pass. The company has put in place certain rules to prevent the spreading of fake news and to help prevent the crime of stock market manipulation. Last year along, across Hong Kong, a joint investigation
by police and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has led to at least 12 arrests with assets frozen to the value of HK$900 million.
How Lawrence Li Uses Fraud And Extortion To Manipulate The Stock Market:
Alarm bells went off at the newswire service when they declined a certain portion of content that Lawrence Li sought to distribute via the Google News platform. The company explained to Kohle Capital that they fell short of certain requirements, although there was a portion of
content that was allowed. Lawrence Li immediately resorted to extortion with fraud. In an email, Lawrence Li said that unless the Newswire publishes whatever content he insists on, “I will file a complaint to your payment gateway and bank tell them that this is unauthorized payment”.
Julia Leung, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong is one of the individuals who have been made aware of the conduct of Kohle Capital Markets and Lawrence Li. Given the high levels of integrity at the SFC, it is expected that Li will likely have to face
justice for his efforts to manipulate markets and distribute fake news.
The CEO of the newswire said that “Procuring fake news coverage by means of extortion and the threat of financial fraud shows that Kohle Capital Markets is not a reliable entity that traders can safely trust. The public should be very worried about leaving any money with Lawrence Li and Kohle”.
Meanwhile, in the U.S, the Justice Department announced that Steven Gallagher was arrested and charged with securities fraud. He allegedly operated a Social Media Pump-and-Dump Scheme
on Twitter to defraud retail investors, earned over $1 million in illegal proceeds.
The question is whether Li will make a run, or whether the SFC will catch up with him. Several years ago President Xi Jinping of China instituted more measures to protect stock market investors, and provided top-level support to crack down on market manipulation and to increase transparency. Hong Kong will no doubt continue to play it’s part in these efforts.
