http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB105993647616119000

Posted by LOW Hwan Hong, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Business, Singapore Management University

China Bank-Fraud Case Shows Accountability in Short Reserve

Fund-Transfer Scam Was Able to Run For Four Years Until Depositor Railed

KARBY LEGGETT Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Updated Aug. 4, 2003 12:01 a.m. ET

TAIYUAN, China — On a chilly day in January 1999, Xue Wenjie, a young government bureaucrat, walked into the Taiyuan City Commercial Bank, plunked down less than $1 in registration fees and opened two new bank accounts. A few hours later, he wired $1.2 million in social-security funds into the new accounts.

The transfers were the start of a financial scam. Mr. Xue, who managed the funds for the government, had cut a deal with a senior manager at the Taiyuan bank to move the money there temporarily in return for a kickback. By the time Mr. Xue was arrested last year, nearly $32 million had been surreptitiously lifted out of the social-security fund, as well as from corporate and individual bank accounts. Along with Mr. Xue, the senior banker and others, the scam also allegedly involved the owner of an upscale restaurant who needed cash to pay off her debts. Continue reading →

http://www.scmp.com/print/business/economy/article/1694004/hong-kong-market-regulators-sees-more-enforcement-actions-2015

Hong Kong market regulator sees more enforcement actions in 2015

Wednesday, 28 January, 2015, 12:11pm

Enoch Yiuenoch.yiu@scmp.com

“The increase in the number of fines issued, and their size, is no accident” – Freshfields

The Securities and Futures Commission substantially increased its enforcement activity last year as a study showed it has issued 56 per cent more disciplinary and criminal actions against companies and individuals last year than in 2013. Continue reading →

Dear ACCT004 class,

“You’ve got to want to do it for the right reasons.”

It’s Week 4 and I know that the “weather” is getting rougher.. I hope our excursion together to the “beach” has been nice:

Let’s all learn from the wisdom of Rocky’s virtuous wife Adrian: We all have “got to want to do it for the right reasons”. Her profound pep talk to Rocky is reproduced below.

The Rocky spirit transcends the notion of “winning” or “losing” – it’s about going the distance. Perhaps our hearts may be made tired by time and fate, but our will should not – and must not – waver. It takes struggles in life to make strength, it takes principles to make fortitude, and singleness of purpose to reach an objective. Every intentional act of body, speech and mind is like seed planted that will grow when the conditions are right; thus as you sow and work hard and set your Heart on Fire, you shall reap.

We are all Rockys in this journey of Life and let’s encourage your friends and one another to excel in both the course and in SMU!

Hey, I ain’t hear no bell!

Warm regards,

KB

Continue reading →

http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-chinas-draft-rules-may-affect-foreign-investors-1422412416

Earlier postings: (1) Proposed Draft Legislation on VIE Structures (Link); (2) US SEC Cautions Companies on Consolidation Analyses Using VIE (Variable Interest Entity) (Link)

How China’s Draft Rules May Affect Foreign Investors; Proposed Rules Target Structure Known as Variable Interest Entity

GILLIAN WONG And JURO OSAWA

Jan. 27, 2015 9:33 p.m. ET

HONG KONG—China’s proposed new rules on foreign investment will help the Chinese government re-exert control over the flood of foreign money and interests coming into the country’s booming Internet industry. That is likely to be a boon for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Chinese Internet companies like it, investors, executives and lawyers say. But for foreign shareholders of those companies as well as Western Internet firms trying to operate in China, the rules could be a double-edged sword, they say.

“The objective, as with everything the Chinese government does, is to maintain control,” said attorney Antony Dapiran, a Hong Kong-based partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP who has advised the kinds of Chinese companies that would be affected by the new rules. Continue reading →

http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/investors-gold-buyback-scheme-alarmed-firms-silence-2015#sthash.Z6El58zh.dpuf

http://business.asiaone.com/news/investors-gold-scheme-alarmed-firms-silence

Posted by Terence CHUA Tong Liang, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Business, Singapore Management University

No word received since early January and owner is uncontactable, they say

More than 20 investors who put around $7 million into a gold buyback scheme run by local firm Suisse International are now worried that they cannot get their money back. Not only is its owner uncontactable, they said, but the company’s office at Keypoint in Beach Road has also been closed. The last message the investors received was from the firm’s vice-president, Ms Belinda Hah, in the first week of January. That was when she informed them via SMS that their money was stuck in a transfer to the firm’s Hong Kong branch – Suisse HK. No further details were given on how investors could get their money back. At least three of them have gone to the police, and engaged debt collection agency JMS Rogers to locate Ms Hah. Continue reading →

http://blog.thomsonreuters.com/index.php/citibank-subsidiary-accused-of-73-million-derivatives-fraud/

Posted by Padma LAU Heng Ee, Year 4 undergrad at the School of Business, Singapore Management University

Citibank subsidiary accused of $73 million derivatives fraud

A Korean subsidiary of Citibank allegedly induced a Korean company into a series of derivative contracts holding “enormous risk” that cost the company $73 million, a lawsuit filed in New York state court says.

21 AUG 2013Peter Hamner

Simmtech Co., a worldwide seller of circuit boards for semiconductors, filed suit in the New York County Supreme Court, saying Citibank Korea Inc. fraudulently sold it derivative contracts allegedly designed to hurt Simmtech and benefit Citibank. Continue reading →

http://www.wsj.com/articles/for-new-revenue-recognition-rules-its-ready-vs-not-1422316175

Earlier postings: Revenue Recognition Changes Could Spur SEC Fraud Probes (Link)

For New Revenue-Recognition Rules, It’s Ready vs. Not

Will Accounting Measure Take Effect as Scheduled? Some Companies Urge Delay

MAXWELL MURPHY

Updated Jan. 26, 2015 7:04 p.m. ET

Call it the $360 billion question: whether to delay one of the biggest accounting changes in decades. The answer isn’t expected until early in the second quarter. The sweeping revisions in revenue-recognition rules “will represent a change for many industries,” said Christine Klimek, a spokeswoman for the Financial Accounting Standards Board, after a joint meeting Monday with its international counterparts. “There are bound to be questions. The answers to most of those questions can be found within the standard itself.” The final draft of the new rules, unveiled last May after years of deliberations, would change the way thousands of companies book revenue. They would affect how auto makers account for car sales and telephone companies account for mobile-phone contracts. Continue reading →

http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2015/01/23/the-big-whistleblower-predictions-for-2015/?mod=wsj_rchome_rcreport

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

About a year ago, we ran a post positing that 2014 would be huge for corporate whistleblowers on a number of fronts. The experts with whom we spoke then hit the nail on the head: every prediction came true. They were right about more Securities and Exchange Commission whistleblower awards arriving (including one for a record $30 million-plus), False Claims Act cases hitting a new record and courts further defining who counts as a whistleblower. Here what some whistleblower experts think may happen in the year ahead: Continue reading →

http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2015/01/22/sec-fines-tampa-company-executive-for-fcpa-violations/

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

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/views-from-the-top/busting-graft-tone-from-the-top-is-key

Busting graft: Tone from the top is key

26 January 2015

Business Times Singapore

THIS WEEK’S TOPIC: How can CEOs build and sustain a graft-free corporate culture in today’s business environment? Continue reading →