[Flashback] Anonymous analysts wreak havoc

http://www.afr.com/p/markets/anonymous_analysts_wreak_havoc_Omubyp8IPIL1kyUaPKsWfN

Posted by KOH Ngiap Hao, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University

An anonymous researcher releases a report questioning the accounts of a publicly traded company. Investors catch wind of it and sell. The targeted firm denies the allegations, but by then the share-price damage is already done.

That’s what’s playing out in Asia this week, with reports on Singapore-listed Noble Group and Sound Global in Hong Kong erasing about $US900 million of market value in a single day. For Andrew Clarke, director of trading at Hong Kong brokerage Mirabaud Asia, there’s something unsettling about that pattern when the sources of market-moving claims can’t be held accountable for what they say. Continue reading

Stock Market Manipulation on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange; The Manipulator’s Poker: Order-Based Manipulation in the Chinese Stock Market

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.libproxy.smu.edu.sg/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=b1d3c2ce-e7f6-41e6-9f94-fe1807dd3fc7%40sessionmgr113&vid=1&hid=108

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy.smu.edu.sg/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=975e07b2-b36c-472c-97a3-7c6e3b909489%40sessionmgr4001&vid=1&hid=4110

Posted by M Laavanya, Year 3 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University

Stock Market Manipulation on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Gerace, Dionigi1 Chew, Charles2 Whittaker, Christopher3 Mazzola, Paul1

Australasian Accounting Business & Finance Journal. 2014, Vol. 8 Issue 4, p105-140. 36p.

Abstract:

This study is the first to empirically examine stock market manipulation on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The dataset contains 40 cases of market manipulation from 1996 to 2009 that were successfully prosecuted by the Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission. Manipulation is found to negatively impact market efficiency measures such as the bid-ask spread and volatility. Markets appear incapable of efficiently responding to the presence of manipulators and are characterised by information asymmetry. Manipulators were successfully able to raise prices and exit the market. This finding contradicts views that trade-based manipulation is entirely unprofitable and self-deterring. The victimisation of information-seeking investors and the market as a whole provides a strong rationale for all jurisdictions, including Australia, to have effective laws that prohibit manipulation and for robust enforcement of those laws to further deter market manipulation

The Manipulator’s Poker: Order-Based Manipulation in the Chinese Stock Market.

Kong, Dongmin1 Wang, Maobin2

Emerging Markets Finance & Trade. Mar/Apr2014, Vol. 50 Issue 2, p73-98. 26p.

Abstract:

This paper investigates order-based manipulation and its effects on investor behavior and market efficiency. Using a unique data set from the Chinese stock market, we show that (1) order-based manipulation affects market liquidity and trading behavior, (2) the manipulator pretends to be informed or expects to be seen as informed by choosing a “right” time to implement the manipulation, and (3) the manipulation rapidly changes investor reaction to the market order/depth imbalance in the short run, and the effect gradually drops during the postmanipulation period. Our results are robust to alternative measures and offer clear implications for both theory and policy.

The Impact of Fraudulent False Information on Equity Values

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy.smu.edu.sg/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=003c91f4-8faa-4b99-9414-55a1efda7c18%40sessionmgr4003&vid=1&hid=4110

Posted by M Laavanya, Year 3 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University

The Impact of Fraudulent False Information on Equity Values.

Ullah, Saif1 sulla@jmsb.concordia.ca Massoud, Nadia2 nmassoud@schulich.yorku.ca Scholnick, Barry3 barry.scholnick@ualberta.ca

Journal of Business Ethics. Mar2014, Vol. 120 Issue 2, p219-235. 17p. 9 Charts, 4 Graphs.

Abstract:

There are two types of stock price manipulation examined in the theoretical literature: (1) insider trading, which involves private information that is true and (2) the public spreading of fraudulent false information. While there is a large empirical literature on insider trading, this is the first empirical article to examine the impact of false, fraudulent public information on stock prices and trading volume. We find that such false information, even after being denied by a credible source such as the SEC, generates both abnormal returns and abnormal trading volume. We also find that the effects of the false information on security returns and volume can be persistent for at least 2 weeks. In addition, we show that perpetrators of false news attacks can make potentially large profits from such market manipulations.

Directors of London-quoted Chinese sports shoe maker Naibu have been forced to admit that they have lost all contact with the company’s chairman and senior executive, in the latest controversy to hit Aim

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/a5b43b32-b790-11e4-8807-00144feab7de.html#axzz3SA7rKDH3

February 18, 2015 6:30 pm

Sports shoe maker loses track of bosses

Miles Johnson and Harriet Agnew

Directors of London-quoted Chinese sports shoe maker Naibu have been forced to admit that they have lost all contact with the company’s chairman and senior executive, in the latest controversy to hit Aim. Naibu, which once said it was China’s 10th largest sportswear brand, listed four years ago on Aim — the London Stock Exchange’s market for fast-growing but often high-risk companies, which was once labelled “a casino” by US regulators. Continue reading

Iceberg cool to MAS review of its report; “we use public financial information, which should simplify the review process.”

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/iceberg-cool-to-mas-review-of-its-report

Iceberg cool to MAS review of its report

Andrea Soh

19 February 2015

Business Times Singapore

Noble Group welcomes the investigation, vows to fully cooperate

ICEBERG Research, whose report on commodity trading firm Noble Group is now under investigation by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), took to the development coolly, even while Noble welcomed the review. “It is perfectly normal that the regulators review our report,” it said in an e-mailed response to BT’s queries. “As many people have remarked, we use public financial information, which should simplify the review process.” Continue reading

SEC Sanctions Chinese Accounting Firms For Refusal To Surrender Documents

http://www.mwe.com/SEC-Sanctions-Chinese-Accounting-Firms-for-Refusal-to-Surrender-Documents-02-13-2015/

SEC Sanctions Chinese Accounting Firms For Refusal To Surrender Documents

Yodi S. Hailemariam

18 February 2015

Mondaq Business Briefing

On February 6, 2015, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) imposed sanctions against four China-based accounting firms for their refusal to surrender documents in conjunction with an investigation of potential accounting fraud and corruption in China.  These sanctions highlight the intensifying challenges multinational companies face when asked to participate in U.S. discovery of data stored in China, and emphasize the increasing importance of creative but sound solutions for dealing with U.S. discovery obligations in China. Continue reading

Watchdog ‘disappointed’ with Grant Thornton audits

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/55700044-b76c-11e4-8807-00144feab7de.html#axzz3SA7rKDH3

February 18, 2015 4:45 pm

Watchdog ‘disappointed’ with Grant Thornton audits

Harriet Agnew, City Correspondent

A report from the UK accountancy watchdog said it was “disappointed” to find that five of the eight Grant Thornton audits it reviewed required either improvements or significant improvements, a blow to the mid-tier firm that is facing two investigations connected to its auditing work. Continue reading

[Flashback] Accounting Fraud Is Still Widespread Among Chinese Companies

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ninaxiang/2014/04/16/accounting-fraud-is-still-widespread-among-chinese-companies/

http://www.scmp.com/business/money/markets-investing/article/1425932/chinese-companies-head-us-listings

Posted by Amy CHAN Wen Yi, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University

Accounting Fraud Is Still Widespread Among Chinese Companies

With the renewed enthusiasm shown by the market for new listings from China, one would assume that investors had turned the page on all the claims of accounting fraud over the past few years.

But do so only at one’s own risk.

There are still many U.S.-listed Chinese companies with the potential to be hit with accounting fraud that investors do not yet know about, at least according to one China-focused hedge fund manager. Continue reading

How to Tell if a CEO Is Lying: A new approach to financial analysis measures executive evasion and candor to gauge a company’s outlook and accounting fraud

http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/Popups/PrintArticle.aspx?ArticleID=3427665

How to Tell if a CEO Is Lying: A new approach to financial analysis measures executive evasion and candor to gauge a company’s outlook.

16 FEB 2015 – JAN ALEXANDER

William McCaffrey, chairman and CEO of MEG Energy Corp. in Calgary, Alberta, was telling analysts about the capital expenditures of his Canadian oils sands development company during its third-quarter 2014 earnings call. “What we’re doing, is we are doing ground field expansion that we are just in the early stages of design,” he said. “When we take a look at our capabilities on that, we focused — our capital programs we focused first obviously on the sustaining and maintenance and that’s really 20 percent of its street 2015 estimate our cash flow.” Continue reading