Sino-Forest Corp. (TRE) reported sales in the millions between 1994 and 1997 from a wood-panel joint venture in China that never produced a single piece of the building material, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported today, citing a former executive.
Zhanjiang Leizhou Eucalyptus Resources Development Co. didn’t generate any revenue from the fiber board product before the joint venture was disbanded in 1998, the newspaper reported, citing Qi Shuxiong, a former Sino-Forest director.
The Ontario Securities Commission on Aug. 26 suspended Toronto trading of Sino-Forest’s shares and alleged that some executives and directors appeared to have engaged in activities that they knew, or should have known, “perpetuate a fraud.”
Allen Chan, who co-founded Sino-Forest in 1992, announced his resignation as chairman and chief executive officer on Aug. 28 and became the company’s chairman emeritus. He didn’t respond to the Ontario regulator’s charges at the time. The Globe and Mail said Chan didn’t respond to its interview requests.
Stan Neve, an external spokesman for Sino-Forest, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment from Bloomberg outside of regular business hours.
Sino-Forest’s stock has plunged 67 percent since short seller Carson Block’s Muddy Waters LLC published a June 2 report alleging that the company overstated its timber holdings. Sino- Forest has denied Muddy Waters’ allegations and has assigned an independent committee to investigate the claims, hiring PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP to assist.
To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Donville in Vancouver at cjdonville@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Simon Casey at scasey4@bloomberg.net.
0 件のコメント:
コメントを投稿