BlockBeats report: On July 27, Futu Clearing, the U.S. clearing entity under Futu Securities, and TradeUP, the U.S. broker-dealer entity under Interactive Brokers, provided information on over 310 accounts suspected of participating in options insider trading to the plaintiffs in the related litigation.
Reports indicate that the number of involved accounts previously stood at approximately 100 and has now increased to 310. Despite the large number of accounts involved, the illicit profits are highly concentrated; preliminary analysis shows that just eight traders earned over $80 million from these transactions, accounting for nearly 60% of the plaintiffs' estimated total illicit gains of $137 million.
It is understood that these traders were accused of making large purchases of short-term options on Futu and Tiger Securities before regulatory authorities released documents requiring brokerages to make corrections. Subsequently, the relevant accounts were frozen. To date, the account holders have not all been formally named as defendants, and participation in these transactions does not equate to a determination of insider trading. The case is still under further investigation and legal proceedings.