Fifteen were arrested on suspicion of fraud and money laundering for trading the shares of Apple Daily publisher Next Digital (0282), Hong Kong police announced. Chung Wing-man, chief superintendent of the Narcotics Bureau, cited their massive trade volume, age and occupation status as grounds for suspicion.

The 15 people are aged between 22 to 53, including six unemployed, one self-employed, a civil servant and a chef. Over three days since Aug. 11, they traded 13,000 times, involving HK$1.69 billion (US$218 million) shares amounting to 23.5% of the entire market activity on those three days.

“We have grounds to believe that it was not an ordinary market speculation activity, but deliberately done to shore up the price of the stock and attract innocent members of the public to invest,” said Chung, noting some of the suspects know each other.

“Given the age and occupation status, we have serious doubts on their sources of finance. This is exactly what we are going to find out – where the money came from and where it went,” says Chung, adding the police are investigating if anyone was manipulating the suspicious stock activities.

The police also do not rule out other possible offences, including manipulation of stock.

People rushed to purchase shares of the pro-democracy media group in a show of support after its owner Jimmy Lai was arrested under the national security law and Apple Daily’s newsroom was raided by over 200 police officers on Aug. 10. The stock soared by 350% in intraday trading before plunging.

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