Dow Jones trading charges settled

The case has grabbed headlines in Asia

A former Dow Jones board member will pay $8.1m (£4m) to settle insider trading charges related to the firm's takeover by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

US regulators had accused David Li, a well-known Hong Kong businessman, of tipping off a close friend about the takeover bid before it was made public.

The friend, Michael Leung, then bought $15m worth of Dow Jones shares with the help of his daughter and son-in-law.

Mr Leung has been ordered to pay a $16.2m fine.

When the deal was made public on 1 May, Dow Jones stock soared 58%.

Accounts frozen

Mr Leung and his relatives stood to gain a potential $8m in illicit profits if the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had not stepped in with a court order to freeze the brokerage account.

Mr Leung's son-in-law Kan King Wong was fined $40,000.

His daughter was not fined.

Under the settlement, those involved neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing but agreed to refrain from future violation of securities laws.

The case has grabbed headlines in Asia.

Mr Li is chairman of Bank of East Asia and a prominent lawmaker in Hong Kong's Legislative Council.

"When an individual with such prominence and connections is caught up and ultimately has to pay a price to make an SEC investigation go away, that has valuable, general deterrence value for the SEC as an enforcement agency," said Michael McGovern, a partner at law firm Ropes & Gray in New York

In December, Dow Jones shareholders gave their final approval to the $5bn takeover of the company, which owns the Wall Street Journal.