http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/19/classaction-china-trial-idUSL1N0Z51X320150619
Ex-CFO of China’s Longtop to pay $2.3 mln in U.S. investor lawsuit
Nate Raymond
20 June 2015
Reuters News
NEW YORK, June 19 (Reuters) – The former chief financial officer of Chinese technology company Longtop Financial Technologies has agreed to pay $2.3 million after a U.S. jury found that he acted recklessly in making untrue statements or omitting facts about the firm. The settlement with former CFO Derek Palaschuk was disclosed in papers filed in Manhattan federal court on Friday, seven months after the jury delivered its verdict in a rare securities class action trial. Neither a lawyer for Palaschuk nor the plaintiffs’ attorneys responded to requests for comment. The lawsuit, filed in 2011, was one of several cases launched around that time amid accounting scandals at Chinese companies trading on U.S. stock exchanges. When the New York Stock Exchange halted trading in Longtop in May 2011, the Xiamen-based company had a $1.08 billion market value. Days later, Longtop’s auditor, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu CPA Ltd, resigned, citing “recently identified falsity” in the company’s financial records. Palaschuk, who had joined Longtop in 2006, tendered his resignation the same day. Before resigning, Palaschuk spoke with Longtop Chief Executive Officer Weizhou Lian. In an email presented at trial that talked about the call, Palaschuk said Lian “informed me the company had been a fraud since 2004”. In the lawsuit, lawyers for Longtop investors contended that Palaschuk missed “red flags” pointing to the fraud, but Palaschuck denied wrongdoing. Continue reading →