Day: February 3, 2015

S.&.P. Announces $1.37 Billion Settlement With Prosecutors

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http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/s-p-announces-1-37-billion-settlement-with-prosecutors/?_r=1

Posted by Joel CHUA Yong Sheng, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Economics, Singapore Management University

S.&.P. Announces $1.37 Billion Settlement With Prosecutors

By BEN PROTESS FEBRUARY 3, 2015 8:40 AM February 3, 2015 8:40 am 84 Comments Updated, 10:08 a.m. | 

Nearly a decade after credit rating agencies fed a subprime mortgage frenzy that imperiled the global economy, one of the industry’s biggest players now faces a costly reckoning. Standard & Poor’s, a rating agency accused of inflating its assessment of mortgage investments that spurred the 2008 financial crisis, said on Tuesday that it had agreed to pay $1.37 billion to settle wide-ranging civil charges from the Justice Department as well as 19 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia. S.&P. also signed a statement of facts that outlined its role in the mortgage crisis, but the ratings agency did not admit to wrongdoing, securing a major concession from the government. Continue reading →

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[Flashback] Singapore shipping fuel scandal sends traders scrambling

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http://www.straitstimes.com/news/business/more-business-stories/story/singapore-shipping-fuel-scandal-sends-traders-scrambling-2

Posted by LIM Hui Jie, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Economics, Singapore Management University

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Traders and shipping companies scrambled to source fuel and take over supply contracts on Friday after Danish marine fuel supplier OW Bunker said a suspected fraud at its Singapore subsidiary had pushed it to the brink of bankruptcy. The alleged fraud at Singapore-based Dynamic Oil Trading is potentially one of the biggest financial market scandals to hit the city state since 2004, when China Aviation Oil (Singapore) ran up oil futures losses of US$550 million. Continue reading →

[Flashback] Tianhe hits back at fraud claims with 55-page rebuttal

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http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/a39fa7e6-4f67-11e4-9c88-00144feab7de.html#axzz3QfbQsc7sx

Posted by LIM Hui Jie, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Economics, Singapore Management University

Tianhe Chemicals shares tumbled 26 per cent after a five­week trading suspension following allegations of accounting fraud. The Chinese chemicals group released a 55­page rebuttal of fraud claims late on Wednesday, arguing that Anonymous Analytics, a group claiming links to Anonymous, the shadowy hacker collective, “used fabricated financial statements to mislead investors”. The short­seller attack from Anonymous caused Tianhe, which had only listed in June with a market capitalisation of about $8bn, to suspend its shares on September 2.

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[Flashback] WiFi provider Gowex goes bankrupt and admits falsifying accounts

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http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/851d118c-0516-11e4-b098-00144feab7de.html#axzz3QfbQsc7s

Posted by LIM Hui Jie, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Economics, Singapore Management University

One of the brightest stars of the Madrid stock market imploded on Sunday, after WiFi provider Let’s Gowex was forced to declare bankruptcy and admit that its chief executive and founder had falsified the company’s accounts for at least the past four years.

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[Flashback] CEO suspended at Saudi telecoms group hit by accounting scandal

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http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c186cf94-69cc-11e4-8f4f-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3QfbQsc7s

Posted by LIM Hui Jie, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Economics, Singapore Management University

An accounting scandal at one of Saudi Arabia’s largest telecommunications companies is posing the first major test of the Gulf monarchy’s regulators, as Riyadh moves to open up the Arab world’s largest stock market to foreign investors next year.

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[Flashback] SEC Accounting Probes Highlight Compliance Needs

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Posted by John SOH Yong Ye , Year 4 undergrad at the School of Economics, Singapore Management University

Almost 13 years after the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, this much is clear: it’s not going anywhere. Arguments from detractors have largely quieted down, and firms have settled into a compliance routine, almost treating the act as an afterthought. Attention has gradually shifted toward newer headline issues like insider trading, leaving Sarbanes-Oxley compliance as a simple checklist item. But, in the same way that the development process accelerates when children hit their teen years, the “terrible teens” for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance might be right around the corner. Continue reading →

China’s Antigraft Drive Turns to Financial Sector

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http://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-antigraft-drive-turns-to-financial-sector-1422881708

Posted by CHUA Sing Nee, Year 3 undergrad at the School of Social Science, Singapore Management University

BEIJING—President Xi Jinping’s two-year antigraft campaign is hitting China’s vast financial sector, according to officials with knowledge of the matter, after investigators began questioning a senior executive at a major bank over his political ties. Mao Xiaofeng, until recently a rising star at China Minsheng BankingCorp. , resigned as president for “personal reasons,” Minsheng said on Saturday. Chinese anticorruption officials are questioning Mr. Mao over his ties to a former top Chinese Communist Party official, Ling Jihua, who is himself being probed by graft inspectors, according to an official at one of China’s financial regulatory agencies.

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The Morning Risk Report: Chinese Regulators Choose Their Own Time to Strike

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http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2015/01/30/the-morning-risk-report-chinese-regulators-choose-their-own-time-to-strike/

Posted by CHUA Sing Nee, Year 3 undergrad at the School of Social Science, Singapore Management University

China’s government accused Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.BABA -0.82% of allowing counterfeiting across its giant online marketplace in a paper made public Wednesday.  But allegations of counterfeiting are nothing new for Alibaba. In Alibaba’s own IPO prospectus, released last May, the e-commerce giant acknowledged the “widespread” perception that counterfeit goods on its platform are “commonplace.” So why is the Chinese government raising the issue now? Continue reading →

Shares of Chaoda Modern Agriculture (0682) slumped 45.45 percent to HK$0.60 after it resumed trading after being suspended for more than three years for accounting fraud

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http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=2&art_id=153909&sid=43813822&con_type=1&d_str=20150203&fc=2

Bleak restart for Chaoda Modern shares
Tuesday, February 03, 2015
Shares of Chaoda Modern Agriculture (0682) slumped 45.45 percent to HK$0.60 yesterday after it resumed trading after being suspended for more than three years.The stock had a turnover of HK$241.39 million. The Fujian-based food maker said it lost HK$1.94 billion in the year ended June 30 of 2014, much less than the HK$3.22 billion lost in 2013. Annual revenue fell 36.05 percent to HK$1.46 billion. It expects to record 20 to 30 percent of year-on-year loss for the six months ended December 31 of 2014, due to low demand for the products and the writing off of prepaid premium for certain land leases. On September 26 of 2011, the financial secretary said the government was investigating its chairman Kwok Ho, chief financial officer Andy Chan Chi-po and another individual on market misconduct, including insider trading. At the same time, research firm Anonymous Analytics published a 38-page report alleging Chaoda’s management transferred US$400 million (HK$3.12 billion) capital from the firm through exaggerating the capital expenses or forging transaction records. The firm did not fight back against the accusation until July 2013, saying that the allegations were untrue. JENNIFER LI

Would You Still Buy Alibaba If It Were Two-Thirds Smaller? If 80% of Taobao’s products are fake, illegal, or substandard, look for that site’s gross merchandise volume-the metric Alibaba uses-to shrink by a large percentage

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2015/02/01/would-you-still-buy-alibaba-if-it-were-two-thirds-smaller/print/

Gordon G. ChangContributor

WORLD AFFAIRS 2/01/2015 @ 3:22PM 52,877 views

Would You Still Buy Alibaba If It Were Two-Thirds Smaller?

On Friday, the State Administration for Industry & Commerce, through a spokesman, tried to minimize a damning report it had issued on Wednesday on Taobao Marketplace, one of the main sites of Hangzhou-based Alibaba Group. The Wednesday report created legal exposure for the Chinese Internet giant and, more significantly, highlights the ultimate unsustainability of its business model. Continue reading →