(Yicai Global) Nov. 27 -- China's main securities regulator has punished glass insulator maker Jinlihua Electric's chairman, chief financial officer, and financing agent due to stock price manipulation that led to losses of CNY157 million (USD22.3 million) in two and a half years.

Chairman Zhao Jian was handed a fine of CNY1.5 million (USD213,400) and CFO Lou Jinping one of CNY1.2 million, and both were banned from stock trading for 10 years, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement. Agent Zhu Panfeng cannot trade equities for three years and must pay a fine of CNY300,000 (USD42,680).

The CSRC has strengthened market supervision over recent years but cases where a firm's chairman and its CFO plot together to rig stock pricing are still rare to surface in the country. 

Jinlihua's triplet had been controlling 112 securities accounts to trade the Zhejiang province-based firm's [SHE: 300069] shares till April 2018. The stock price had more than doubled over the 15 months ended in late 2016, the peak of the period of market manipulation. The shares have fallen by nearly three-quarters from that upswing to this afternoon's CNY11.28 (USD1.60).  

The three had carefully punctuated their trades by publishing press releases of restructuring plans to attract retail investors to pour money into the stock.

Editor: Emmi Laine