During the Senate Economics Legislation committee meeting yesterday, it fell to ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell to respond specifically to questions about alleged rogue HSBC advisor Simson Kwok. (Kwok is reported to have siphoned up to A$3 million of client's funds into a Singaporean company run by a friend, although The Australian reports that HSBC appears unable to account for exactly how much money was misappropriated and two civil cases brought by HSBC against Kwok and the Singaporean company have been dropped. HSBC reportedly became aware of Kwok's rogue activities more than 18 months ago.)Kell confirmed that ASIC "received material" about Kwok in 2014 and again "quite recently" this year. In regard to the 2014 complaints, Kell said that as there were only a small number of customers involved ("less than 10") and they were being compensated, ASIC decided not to take any further action at that time, given the agency's "limited resources". Tim Mullaly, one of ASIC's senior executives leaders, then confirmed that HSBC had referred the latest matter of the missing investors' funds to the police immediately before providing a breach report to ASIC. Kell outlined some of the questions that ASIC might consider, including: Was the nature of the conduct more egregious than what was identified last year? How many advisers were involved and how many customers were affected?