【中国概念股猎杀季】多家中概董事称不介意简历伪造被揭穿

【中国概念股猎杀季】多家中概董事称不介意简历伪造被揭穿概念股, 中国, 简历来源：彭博新闻 2011年3月30日目前正接受卖空调查，至少是四家在美上市的中国公司的董事——Gene Michael Bennett 称他并不是他所声称的那样。

Absaroka资本上周在其网站发布一封信称Bennett并未在其自传里所声称的那家会计公司任职，没有从密歇根大学获得法律学位；Bennett在神州矿业供职时并未遵守审计委员会规则，却并未被当局起诉。

Bennett声称他并没有做错任何事并指责他人对其背景的误解而引发一些困惑。

Absaroka是一家正在崛起的投资公司的一个部门，该部门发现一些通过收购在美开始交易的中国公司的不一致性，然后试图从他们的衰退中获利。

随着中国去年超过日本成为世界第二大经济体，中国经济中投资热情的高涨，反向收购已使得许多中国公司进入世界上最大的资本市场而不必接受IPO的审查。

“Bennett是我们首先关注神州矿业的原因。

”一名在位于Cheyenne, Wyoming的Absaroka的分析师Kevin Barnes称，“我们不明白他如何得到这种履历以及仍然在董事会。

我们希望一个更加关心公众股东利益的人选担任审计委员会的主席。

”最不被看好的股票根据位于纽约Woodbury 的Deal Flow媒体集团的说法，位于北京的中国神州矿业是2004年以来通过反向收购在美国上市的370多家公司之一，目前神州矿业是纽交所最不被看好的公司。

在反向收购中，一家非上市公司收购一家上市的壳公司获得在美上市的机会。

美国证券交易委员会派出一个任务小组找出在美国上市的海外公司的舞弊行为，尤其关注中国公司的反向收购，同时去年展开一项调查要求审计师提供这些公司的信息。

位于西安的中国绿色农业和位于大连的绿诺国际（一家水设备制造商）都成为美国证券交易所调查的对象。

彭博数据显示，在其2011年1月达到最大值186亿美元之后，80家最大的在美上市公司的市值几乎减少了40亿美元。

补偿Bennett，63岁，在北京经营一家叫美国通用业务协会的非政府组织，该组织帮助中国公司扩展海外业务。

根据公司的文件和彭博的数据显示，Bennett从2007年起，至少在6家在美上市的中国公司任职。

根据监管文件，在2008和2009年间，他从7家公司中至少获益30万美元。

其中包括其从4家目前正在接受调查的公司中获得的19万美元。

Bennett2007年4月到7月间在位于北京目前正在接受调查的多元印刷中担任审计委员会主席，担任改公司的首席财务官直到2007年12月。

该公司当时你是一家知名的金融集团。

Bennett从2008年10月起担任艾瑞泰克的董事，该家位于北京的公司这个月已炒掉其审计师，开始调查所谓未明确指出的“第三方指控”。

不承认Bennett从2007年4月到2008年10月担任位于云南的圣火药业的董事和审计委员会主席。

圣火药业不承认有任何错，但支付了20万美元解决声称其误导投资者的诉讼。

他2008年2月起担任惠普森医药的董事。

2007年4月，Bennett提名为中消安的审计委员会主席，2008年9月离开董事会。

2009年11月到2010年9月间Bennett担任大华建设的首席财务官。

该公司已改名为中国CGame 集团。

2011年2月Bennett成为位于深圳的全球能源股份有限公司的审计委员会主席。

Bennett从2007年11月起担任中国神州矿业的董事，称其将一直呆下去。

该公司目前有约1.56亿美元的市值，2011年最高的时候有2.865亿美元。

根据交易数据,卖空交易额相当于3月15日可交易的股票市值的62%,使其成为纽交所上市的股票中最不被看好的一家。

“没什么错”“我并没有什么错，我相信神州矿业也没有做错什么”他在3月23日的一封电子邮件中说。

神州矿业在其2010年年度报告中称在3月9日Absaroka称其虚报其矿产和提出其他问题后，其采矿、加工和运送氟石、铜、锌和铅的量下降了22%。

该对冲基金称Bennett虚构了其供职历史，Bennett称其在Grant Thornton LLP会计公司工作过，在监管文件里夸大了其教育背景，同时并没有召开足够多的审计委员会会议。

Bennett在一封电子邮件中称其曾供职于Gerbel & Butzbaugh，在其离开时，Gerbel & Butzbaugh正在与一家公司谈判合并问题，该公司就是后来的Grant Thornton；根据其网站信息，Grant Thornton的客户包括美国政府和道琼斯工业指数30支成分股中超过一半的公司。

神州矿业在10月12日的一份文件中称Bennett“有在世界顶尖的审计公司——GrantThornton工作的经验”。

没有谈判Gerbel & Butzbaugh现在叫作Gerbel & Co，位于密歇根的St. Joseph。

当Bennett为Gerbel 工作时，该公司并没有和Grant Thornton或其改名之前的公司谈判，曾在Gerbel工作41年的公司行政长官Marcia Graham称。

Grant Thornton 的一位发言人Kristi Grgeta称不能确认其公司和Gerbel的任何关系。

“当我离开Gerbel & Butzbaugh时，他们正在与Alex Grant进行并购的谈判，”Bennett在一封电子邮件中说。

“那好似30多年前。

在之后为了澄清，都称是供职于Gerbel & Butzbaugh 的注册会计师。

”中消安2007年8月9日上交SEC的文件中称Bennett从密歇根大学获得了法律学位。

惠普森医药2008年和2009年的年度报告称其从密歇根大学毕业。

L & L 财务有限公司2008年2月发布的一份新闻稿宣布任命Bennett为首席财务官，其中称Bennett在密歇根大学读了法律课程。

这家位于西雅图的公司现在改名为龙腾矿业。

没有记录David Baum密歇根大学法学院的院长助理，在一封电子邮件中称其并没有Bennett在这里攻读课程的记录。

Bennett在3月24日的一封电子邮件中说他并没有从密歇根大学获得法律学位也从来没有入学。

他说他“犯了一个没有澄清误解的错误”。

根据国家学生数据库的数据，Bennett从密歇根州立大学，一所分校获得了本科和硕士学位。

根据文件，神州矿业审计委员会在2008年和2009年分别召开了2次和3次会议。

公司章程规定审计委员会每年至少必须召开4次会议，如果情况要求，每年召开的次数可以增加。

Bennett 称已经通过电话或亲自与管理层和其他董事会成员召开了频繁的会议，另外声称“将来所有这些会议都会更加规范”。

尽管我们给公司办公司接待人员留下信息和发了两封电子邮件，神州矿业拒绝对此发表评论。

给该公司在美国3个IR人员留的信息也没得到回应。

从顶峰跌落彭博追踪的80家反向收购公司从2009年3月9日道琼斯指数12年以来最低点开始到2010年1月11号，整体上涨了239%，到2010年1月11号整体市值达到245亿美元。

数据显示，其市值与14个月前的高点相比下降了40%，与其在2011年1月12日的高点相比，下降了21%。

彭博编制的一份数据显示，在这80家公司中，大约9%上市流通的股份被卖空，而标准普尔500指数卖空的比例只有3.7%。

该指数包括在纽交所，纽约美国大全交易所或纳斯达克上市的市值超过5000万美元的所有股票。

这些公司中没有IPO的公司。

“我们正在持续关注国外控制的美国上市公司和保荐其上市的投行，包括重复上市的公司。

”一位SEC的发言人John Nester 称。

卖空Absaroka，一家通过股票涨跌赚钱的对冲基金，拒绝透露其在神州矿业上的赌注有多大。

卖空指出售借来的证券以期望未来价格下跌以低价买入还给股东以获利的一种交易行为。

据位于纽约的投资于反向收购的Paragon Capital LP的一位基金经理Kevin Pollack的说法，在评估公司董事的质量是尽职审查中重要的一个步骤。

“在任何一个投资市场，都有一小部分害群之马需要我们十分小心，如低素质的董事和推销商。

”Pollack 称。

对于为中国公司签字同意报告的公司，位于华盛顿的上市公司Accounting Oversight Board 在3月15日的报告中称其发现这些公司的一些“潜在的审计隐患”，包括语言障碍和过分信任外部顾问。

该报告重点关注了使用反向收购在美上市的中国公司。

更多的中国投资这次反向收购的风潮是伴随对中国证券不断上升的投资而来的。

根据位于纽约的研究公司XTF 集团的数据，在过去的3年中，投资者对iShares FTSE China 25 Index Fund（FXI）的投资净增加16.4亿美元。

这是除美国之外的96支交易型开放式股票基金追踪的国家中第4大资金流入国。

印刷设备制造商多元印刷9月13号在解雇其审计机构——德勤后股价骤降55%。

美国证券交易委员会正在调查多元在证券出售中可能的造假行为，根据3月18号的声明，多元将积极配合。

多元尚未提交截止到6月30号的年度财务报告，也为提交截止到9月30日或12月31日的季度报告。

Bennett是艾瑞泰克这个月成立的特殊委员会的成员之一，该公司3月13日称该委员会将“调查第三方的某些指控”。

第二天，艾瑞泰克宣布辞去其审计机构——安永华明。

Bennett2008年10月23日辞去了圣火药业的职务，声称该公司缺乏良好的公司治理。

“声明一下，我并不认为该公司在某些行为中欺诈，不是故意违反规则和条例，但是他们缺乏如何成为一家合格在美国国或其他信用市场上市公司的知识而且似乎不愿意学习如何做。

”他在给董事会的信中这样说。

Director of China Companies in U.S. Says Never Mind as Resume Proves FalseGene Michael Bennett, a director for at least four Chinese companies trading in the U.S., has come under the scrutiny of a short seller who says he’s not what he claims. Absaroka Capital Management LLC posted a letter on its website last week saying Bennett didn’t work for the accounting firm listed in his biography, has no law degree from the University of Michigan and fails to comply with rules of the audit committee he leads at China Shen Zhou Mining & Resources Inc. (SHZ) B ennett, who hasn’t been accused of anything by regulators, says he’s done nothing wrong and blamed some of the confusion about his background on misperceptions.Absaroka is part of a growing group of investment firms discovering inconsistencies at Chinese companies that started trading in the U.S. through takeovers, and that are trying to profit from their decline. Transactions called reverse mergers have given hundreds of Chinese corporations access to the world’s largest capital market, avoiding the scru tiny of initial public offerings as hunger grows for investments in an economy that became larger than Japan’s last year.“Bennett was part of the reason why we initially got concerned about China Shen Zhou,” said Kevin Barnes, an analyst at Cheyenne, Wyoming-based Absaroka. “We don’t understand how he can have this track record and still be on the board. We would expect a candidate with a higher duty of care for public shareholders to be the audit committee chairman.”Most ShortedBeijing-based China Shen Zhou, the most-shorted stock on the NYSE Amex exchange, is among at least 370 reverse merger companies that obtained U.S. listings since 2004, according to DealFlow Media Inc., a research firm based in Woodbury, New York. In a reverse merger, a closely held corporation buys a public shell company and retains the U.S. listing.The Securities and Exchange Commission set up a task force to look for fraud in overseas companies with listings on U.S. exchanges, with particular interest in Chinese reverse mergers, and began a probe last year asking auditors for information on the firms. China Green Agriculture Inc. (CGA), based in Xi’an, and Rino International Corp. (RINO), a Dalian-based maker of water- treatment equipment, have been the subjects of inquiries from the agency.Almost $4 billion of value has been erased from 80 of the biggest exchange-listed companies after they reached their 2011 peak of about $18.6 billion in January, Bloomberg data show.CompensationBennett, 63, runs a nongovernmental organization called American General Business Association in Beijing that helps Chinese companies develop business overseas. He’s served on the boards of at least six Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges since 2007, according to company documents and data compiled by Bloomberg. He was paid more than $300,000 during 2008 and 2009 by seven companies, according to regulatory filings. That includes at least $190,000 for his work at the four firms which are or have been under scrutiny.At Beijing-based Duoyuan Printing Inc. (DYP), now the target of an SEC investigation, Bennett served as audit committee chair between April and July 2007 and as CFO until December 2007. The company was known as Asian Financial Inc. at the time. He has been a director since October 2008 at China Agritech Inc. (CAGC), a Beijing company that fired its auditor this month and began an investigation into “allegations made by third parties” that it didn’t specify.No AdmissionBennett was a director and on the audit committee of Kunming-based China ShenghuoPharmaceutical Holdings Inc. (KUN) from June 2007 to October 2008. China Shenghuo paid $200,000 to settle, without admitting wrongdoing, a shareholder lawsuit alleging it misled investors.He has been a director of China Pharma Holdings Inc. (CPHI) since February 2008. Bennett was named chairman of the audit committee for China Fire & Security Group Inc. (CFSG) in April 2007, and left the board in September 2008. He was CFO of China Architectural Engineering Inc. from November 2009 to September 2010. The company has changed its name to China CGame Inc. He became chairman of the audit committee and member of the compensation committee at Shenzhen-based Global Pharm Holdings Group Inc. (GPHG) in February this year.Bennett, who has been a China Shen Zhou director since November 2007, said he plans to keep his role. The company has a stock-market value of $151.6 million, down from a peak of $286.5 million on Jan. 5. Short sales amounted to 62 percent of shares available for trading as of March 15, making it the most-shorted stock listed on NYSE Amex, according to exchange data.‘Nothing Wrong’“I have done nothing wrong, and I do not believe the company has either,” he said in an e-mail on March 23.China Shen Zhou, which said in its 2010 annual report that it mines, processes and distributes fluorite, copper, zinc and lead, fell 22 percent on March 9 after Absaroka said the company exaggerated the size of its mines and raised other issues. The hedge fund said Bennett lied about his employment history by saying he worked for accounting firm Grant Thornton LLP, overstated his educational background in a regulatory filing and failed to convene enough audit committee meetings.Bennett said in an e-mail that he worked for Gerbel & Butzbaugh, and when he left Gerbel, it was negotiating to merge with a firm that later became Grant Thornton, whose clients include the U.S. government and more than half the companies in the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average, according to its website. China Shen Zhou said in an Oct.12 filing that Bennett has “experience working for one of the top auditors in the world, Grant Thornton.”No NegotiationsGerbel & Butzbaugh is now called Gerbel & Co., which is based in St. Joseph, Michigan. While Bennett did work for Gerbel, the company never negotiated to merge with Grant Thornton or its predecessor, said Marcia Graham, firm administrator at Gerbel who says she’s worked there for 41 years. Kristi Grgeta, a Grant Thornton spokeswoman, was unable to confirm any relationship with Gerbel.“When I left Gerbel & Butzbaugh, they were negotiating with Alex Grant to merge,” Bennett said in an e-mail. “That was over 30 years ago. To clarify in the future all references will be to Gerbel & Butzbaugh CPAs as employer.”A China Fire & Security document filed with the SEC on Aug. 9, 2007, said Bennett received a law degree from the University of Michigan. Annual reports for 2008 and 2009 from China Pharma Holdings say he graduated from “Michigan University.” A press release from L & L Financial Holdings Inc. in February 2008 announcing Bennett’s appointment as CFO said he took law classes at the University of Michigan. TheSeattle-based company has renamed itself L&L Energy Inc. (LLEN)No RecordsDavid Baum, assistant dean at the law school, said in an e- mail that he found no records of Bennett taking classes there.Bennett said in a March 24 e-mail that he doesn’t have a law degree from the University of Michigan and never enrolled. He said he committed an “error in not correcting a misconception.” Bennett has an undergraduate degree and master’s degree in business administration from Michigan State University, a separate school, according to data compiled by the National Student Clearinghouse.China Shen Zhou’s audit co mmittee met twice in 2008 and three times in both 2009 and 2010, according to filings. The company’s bylaws say the group must meet at least four times a year and more when circumstances require.Bennett said there were frequent meetings by telephone and in person with management and other board members, adding that, “in the future all such meetings will be more formalized.”China Shen Zhou didn’t respond to requests for comment, including a message left with an office receptionist and two e- mails. There was no response to messages left for three investor relations contacts in the U.S.Down From PeaksEighty reverse merger companies tracked by Bloomberg surged 239 percent as a group between the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s 12-year low on March 9, 2009, and Jan. 11, 2010, when their total value reached about $24.5 billion. They have fallen 40 percent since that peak 14 months ago and 21 percent since their 2011 high on Jan. 12, the data show.Among the 80 companies, about 9 percent of shares available for trading have been sold short, compared with 3.7 percent in the S&P 500, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The index includes companies that, as of January, had a minimum market value of $50 million, traded more than 50,000 shares a day, and were listed by the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex or Nasdaq Stock Market. None had IPOs.“We are continuing to look at foreign-controlled U.S. companies and the intermediaries who bring them to market, including repeat players,” said John Nester, an SEC spokesman.Short SellingAbsaroka, a hedge fund that aims to make money when stocks rise or fall, declined to disclose the size of its bet against China Shen Zhou. Short selling is the sale of borrowed stock in the hope of profiting by buying the securities later at a lower price and returning them to the shareholder.Assessing the quality of company directors is an important piece of due diligence, according to Kevin Pollack, a money manager at New York-based Paragon Capital LP who invests in reverse-merger companies.“In every investment market, there are a small number of bad apples that can raise a red flag, such as low quality directors and promoters,” Pollack said.The Washington-based Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said in a March 15 report that i t found “potential audit concerns” -- including language barriers andoverreliance on outside consultants -- for firms that sign off on statements for companies in China. The report focused on corporations that listed on U.S. exchanges using reverse mergers.More China InvestmentThe wave has coincided with increased investment in Chinese securities. Investors added a net $1.64 billion to the iShares FTSE China 25 Index Fund (FXI) in the past three years, according to New York-based research firm XTF Inc. That’s the fourth-largest inflow among 96 ETFs tracking countries, excluding the U.S.Duoyuan plunged 55 percent on Sept. 13 after the maker of printing equipment dismissed auditor Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu CPA Ltd. The SEC is investigating Duoyuan for possible fraud in the sale of securities, a probe that the company is cooperating with, according to a March 18 statement. Duoyuan hasn’t filed an annual report for the year ended June 30, or quarterly reports for the periods ended Sept. 30 or Dec. 31.Bennett is a member of a special committee formed by China Agritech this month, which the company said on March 13 will “investigate certain allegations made by third parties.” The next day, China Agritech announced that it fired its auditor, Ernst & Young Hua Ming.He resigned from the board and audit committee of China Shenghuo on Oct. 23, 2008, saying the company lacked good corporate governance measures.“To be clear I do not feel the firm is fraudulent in actions, nor purposely breaking rules and regulations, but they are uneducated and seemingly unwilling to be educated on what is necessary to be a good member of Amex or any other credible market,” he wrote in a letter to the board.。