Morgan Stanley compliance officers approved the trades of investment banker Du Jun, who is at the centre of Hong Kong’s highest profile insider dealing trial, a court in the territory heard Monday.

In February 2007 Samantha Ng, a former Morgan Stanley compliance manager, signed off on an application by Mr Du to buy shares in Citic Resources, a unit of China’s largest investment conglomerate, after, she said, she confused it with sister company Citic Pacific.