Earnings Management To Tunnel: Evidence from China’s Listed Companies

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.197.6710&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Posted by Hannah YAP Qing, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University

Earnings Management To Tunnel: Evidence from China’s Listed Companies

Qiao Liu Zhou (Joe) Lu

This Draft: April 2004

Abstract

This paper conducts a two-stage analysis to demonstrate that earnings management in China’s listed companies is mainly induced by the controlling owners’ tunnelling incentive. In the first stage, we relate our analysis to previous research on the Chinese listed companies which has documented their strong incentives to manage earnings in order to meet certain return on equity (ROE) thresholds. We identify tunnelling evidence in two situations where such practice has been the most conspicuous. In the second stage, we examine systematic differences in earnings management across the universe of China’s listed companies during 1999-2001. We provide cross-sectional and time-series evidence showing that firms with higher corporate governance levels tend to have less earnings management. Our empirical findings although not being able to completely exclude other explanations, strongly suggest that agency conflicts between controlling shareholders and outside investors are the main stimuli of earnings management in China’s listed companies.

[Flashback] How to Spot a Pump and Dump

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0426/investing-pink-sheets-fraud-stock-scam-madoff-spot-pump-dump.html

Posted by Latha Do NADARAJAN , Year 3 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University

Bernard L. Madoff’s escapade has made you suitably wary of Ponzi schemes. Now here’s another investment scam, equally venerable, that you should be sensitive to. It is called pump-and-dump. It involves the building of feverish excitement around a tiny company in such a way that insiders can unload worthless shares on suckers.

The Securities & Exchange Commission has brought a number of cases recently against what it considers pump-and-dump artists. Unfortunately, there are slim prospects of meaningful restitution for aggrieved investors. As Bernie’s victims can tell you, assuming that securities cops will nab the bad guys in a timely fashion is a ticket to the poorhouse. Continue reading

[Flashback] Nikko Cordial execs aided fraud: panel

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2007/01/31/business/nikko-cordial-execs-aided-fraud-panel/#.VQg8xdH9mB9
Posted by Latha Do NADARAJAN , Year 3 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University

A special panel looking into accounting fraud at Nikko Cordial Corp. issued a report Tuesday saying top management was involved in inflating profits at the nation’s third-largest brokerage.

The findings by the panel — four outside legal experts led by Surugadai Law School professor Masaharu Hino — contradict the brokerage’s earlier contention that the fraud was perpetrated by a single employee.

In its report, the panel blames Hajime Yamamoto, Nikko Cordial’s chief financial officer from October 2001 to February 2006, for being directly involved in a fraudulent deal allegedly used to inflate profits at the brokerage.

“As the firm’s CFO, (Yamamoto) should have been fully aware of the impact that the deal would have on Nikko Cordial’s consolidated earnings,” the report states. Continue reading

[Flashback] U.S. SEC charges ex-ChinaCast execs with fraud, insider trading

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/26/sec-chinacast-idUSL2N0HM1N120130926

Posted by Latha Do NADARAJAN , Year 3 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University

U.S. securities regulators on Thursday charged the former chief executive of China-based ChinaCast Education Corp with stealing tens of millions of dollars from investors in a U.S. public offering. Ex-CEO Chan Tze Ngon transferred $41 million to a subsidiary that then transferred funds outside of the company, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said.

Continue reading

[Flashback] Potential losses in suspected China port metals financing fraud near $900m

http://today.moneyweb.co.za/article?id=766092#.VQg8A9H9mB9

Posted by Shaun CHEW Wen Jing , Year 4 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University

HSBC last week became the latest company to initiate legal action in connection with the suspected metals financing fraud at China’s Qingdao port, signalling losses could climb from the events at the world’s seventh busiest port.

Chinese authorities in May launched an investigation into whether a private metals trading firm, Decheng Mining, and its related companies used fake warehouse receipts at Qingdao Port to obtain multiple loans secured against a single cargo of metal. Continue reading

Sunac Said to Find Kaisa Unprofitable in Due Diligence Work; Analysts are still forecasting a profit for the full year, with the average of six estimates compiled by Bloomberg at 3.1bn yuan ($495m)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-16/sunac-said-to-find-kaisa-unprofitable-in-takeover-due-diligence

Sunac Said to Find Kaisa Unprofitable in Due Diligence Work

byBloomberg News

March 16, 2015

(Bloomberg) — Sunac China Holdings Ltd., which is buying Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd., has found during due diligence that the troubled developer probably had a loss last year, people familiar with the matter said. Sunac executives drew the conclusion based on studying Kaisa’s books after Sunac agreed to buy the Shenzhen-based developer, according to the people, who asked not to be named as Sunac executives are still going through the numbers. Kaisa said last month it would post a “substantial decline” in profit for 2014, without providing figures. Analysts are still forecasting a profit for the full year, with the average of six estimates compiled by Bloomberg at 3.1 billion yuan ($495 million). Continue reading

Accounting Narratives and Impression Management

http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415617147/

Posted by Nureen CHAN Wan Wei, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Accountancy, Singapore Management University

ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on impression management in accounting communication. Impression
management entails the construction of an impression by organisations with the intention to
appeal to their audiences, including shareholders, stakeholders, the general public, and the
media. If successful, it undermines the quality of financial reporting and capital misallocations
may result. What is more, wider social and political consequences include unwarranted support
by non-financial stakeholders or by society at large. Impression management is examined by
reference to four perspectives: the economic, psychological, sociological, and critical. These
variously conceptualise impression management as reporting bias, self-serving bias, symbolic
management, and ideological bias.

SEBI mulls new group to check market manipulation through penny stocks; trading in ‘T’ group is restricted to delivery-based trades within a small price band of up to five per cent and intra-day trades are not allowed

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/markets/sebi-mulls-new-group-for-manipulationprone-penny-stocks/article6904982.ece

SEBI mulls new group to check market manipulation through penny stocks

MUMBAI, FEB 17:  

To check market manipulation through ’penny stocks’, market watchdog SEBI will soon ask stock exchanges to create a new group for shares that are found to be prone to such activities. The new group may be called ‘T+’ and would include shares that remain susceptible to manipulative activities despite having been put in the ‘T’ group where trading is restricted to delivery-based trades within a small price band of up to five per cent and intra-day trades are not allowed. Continue reading

Sebi cracks whip on 33 entities and suspended trading in Kamalakshi Finance Corp in R1,800-cr market manipulation and tax evasion case

http://indianexpress.com/article/business/business-others/sebi-cracks-whip-on-33-entities-in-r1800-cr-tax-evasion-case/

Sebi cracks whip on 33 entities in R1,800-cr tax evasion case

21 February 2015

Indian Express

In a major crackdown against market manipulation and tax evasion, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Friday suspended trading in Kamalakshi Finance Corp (KFCL) and imposed trading restrictions on 33 entities for making undue gains of over Rs 1,800 crore. </p><p>While 24 entities have been barred from the capital market, nine others have been restrained from trading in the shares of Kamalakshi Finance.The regulator has suspended trading in 27 companies so far in such cases, wherein the manipulators are estimated to have made cumulative undue gains of about Rs 2,500 crore. </p><p>In the latest case, Sebi found that the entities used the preferential share route through Kamalakshi and their trades resulted into artificial increase in its price. “Thus, these group of entities prima facie manipulated the price of the scrip during the examination period (January 15, 2014 to December 26, 2014),” Sebi said in an order. Continue reading

Sri Lankan pump and dump offenders must be brought to book

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/150215/business-times/sri-lankan-pump-and-dump-offenders-must-be-brought-to-book-jafferjee-135180.html

Sri Lankan pump and dump offenders must be brought to book – Jafferjee

15 February 2015

Sunday Times

By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera Sri Lankan investors who pump and dump on shares should be prosecuted with the same level of seriousness of other crimes such as burglary and theft, according to the CEO of a top broking firm. Murtaza Jafferjee, CEO JB Stockbrokers told the Business Times that pumping and dumping exists (contrary to some irrational beliefs in the past) and that totally illegal. “There’re two types of pump and dump – one is pump and dump on unsuspecting retailers; other is doing so on shares of fiduciary institutions such as the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) in connivance with officers within,” he said, highlighting that both these happened in the past at the Colombo Stock Market. Continue reading