An executive and director of formerly listed Oceania Natural Limited have been given the highest penalties to date for market manipulation.

The penalties follow an April 6, 2023, court ruling that Wei (Walker) Zhong, former executive chairman and CEO of Oceania Natural, and Lei (Regina) Ding, former senior manager and marketing director of Oceania Natural, had breached the market manipulation and disclosure provisions under sections 265 and 297 of the Financial Markets Conduct Act (FMCA).

Zhong had six market manipulation contraventions and three disclosure contraventions, while Ding had six market manipulation contraventions and five disclosure contraventions.

Zhong was ordered to pay a penalty of $1.33 million and Ding a penalty of $760,000, in a High Court ruling last week in Auckland.

Oceania Natural, which produced and distributed healthy food and supplement products, including mānuka honey and noni juice, listed on the NZX’s NXT market in March 2016, before delisting from the NXT on June 29, 2018.

Oceania Natural went into liquidation on June 18, 2019.

The Herald reported in April 2019 that the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) had filed civil proceedings against four individuals in relation to Oceania Natural shares.

The case centred on the trading in shares of Oceania Natural between May 2016 and April 2017.

Zhongyang (Sean) Meng, a previous director of Oceania Natural, and Jiashun (Sam) Qian, a chartered accountant, received penalties of $180,000 and $130,000 respectively for market manipulation and disclosure breaches in a March 2022 ruling.