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Simon Sadler, founder of hedge fund Segantii Capital Management, pleaded not guilty Thursday to insider trading charges in one of Hong Kong’s most high-profile financial criminal cases.
His former colleague Daniel La Rocca and the hedge fund itself also pleaded not guilty. They are accused of trading on insider information regarding the securities of retailer Esprit in 2017. If convicted, Sadler and La Rocca face a maximum prison sentence of seven years.
District Judge Kwok Wai-kin set the trial date for May 4, 2026 and granted 25 days for the proceedings. A hearing is expected to take place on December 4, 2025.
According to a lawyer for the Public Prosecution Service, four prosecution witnesses are expected, including one market expert. Sadler and La Rocca did not speak during the hearing.
The judge also extended the defendants’ bail until the hearing in December.
Sadler, 55, from Blackpool in north-west England, founded Segantii in 2007 and built it into one of Asia’s best-known hedge funds, with $6 billion under management at its peak. He is the owner of Blackpool Football Club, which he bought in 2019.
The fund has begun winding down operations and returning capital to investors after Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission announced its criminal investigation in May.
Segantii was one of the most powerful participants in the block trade market, a lucrative financial corner in which banks sell large amounts of shares privately. Such sales can depress a company’s stock price.
The hedge fund was a prolific buyer of blocks and had built strong relationships with Wall Street’s largest banks. But in 2022, the Financial Times reported that Bank of America and Citigroup had suspended stock trading with Segantii over concerns about its bets on block sales.
Segantii has previously said it “intends to vigorously defend itself against the accusation.”