Poor David Li, aka The Man Who Knew Too Much. Three weeks after he reached a settlement agreement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over insider trading allegations, the prominent Hong Kong banker and former Dow Jones director is still embroiled in the fight of his life.

Earlier this month Mr Li, chairman and chief executive of Bank of East Asia, agreed to pay $8.1m to resolve SEC charges, which the banker has neither admitted nor denied, that last April he tipped off a friend about Rupert Murdoch’s then-unannounced bid for Dow Jones and its prize asset, the Wall Street Journal.