Goldman Sachs KYC Checks Flagged Hong Kong Hedge Fund Later Raided

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley refused to onboard Infini Capital Management Ltd. as a client because of know-your-customer rules, according to people familiar with the matter. JPMorgan Chase and UBS had already cut prime-brokerage ties with the firm several months earlier. Then, on March 12, Hong Kong regulators raided it.

The enforcement sweep, code-named "Operation Fuse," was the city's biggest financial-industry crackdown since 2017. The Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Securities and Futures Commission searched 14 locations across Hong Kong over two days, targeting the offices of at least two Chinese brokerages and a hedge fund in a coordinated action focused on suspected corruption and insider trading. The raids led to the arrest of eight people, six men and two women between the ages of 35 and 60.

At the center of the action was Infini, a firm that had already drawn scrutiny across Hong Kong's close-knit financial community long before regulators moved in. Founded by former investment banking analyst Tony Chin, Infini gained prominence through aggressive trading in Hong Kong-listed stocks and was estimated to have deployed roughly HK$20 billion in the market. Bloomberg reported that the firm was willing to take bets bigger than the assets in its hedge fund and had developed a reputation for negotiating directly with companies for share placements, encroaching on territory that investment banks typically manage. It also attracted attention with unorthodox fee models and hires.

Despite that market footprint, Infini maintained a deliberately opaque public presence. Its website listed an address at Hong Kong's Cheung Kong Center but provided little information about its ownership or partners. In 2025, the firm received approval from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of the Abu Dhabi Global Market, obtaining a financial licence in the emirate. Some media reports claimed the firm had secured backing from wealthy Middle Eastern investors, but several investment institutions in the UAE told Caixin they had never heard of Infini.

The raids swept up two prominent Chinese brokerages alongside Infini. Guotai Junan International, the Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of Guotai Junan Securities, confirmed on March 12 that authorities had searched its office and that one employee had been detained by the ICAC and suspended from duties. Citic Securities disclosed that officials had visited its Hong Kong operation on March 10, seizing documents and questioning an employee.

For Goldman Sachs, the episode illustrates how KYC processes can effectively function as an early warning system. While the bank's refusal to onboard Infini preceded any public enforcement action, the decision placed Goldman alongside Morgan Stanley in declining a relationship that JPMorgan Chase and UBS later unwound. All four banks declined to comment.

Allegations against those arrested remain at the suspected stage; no formal charges had been publicly confirmed as of the Bloomberg report published March 13. The identities of the eight individuals detained, the specific transactions under investigation, and Infini's corporate ownership structure all remain undisclosed.