Billionaire Zhang Zhirong is at the centre of a probe involving China's biggest overseas acquisition.
A company controlled by the 43-year-old mainland-born entrepreneur who founded Hong Kong-listed shipbuilder China Rongsheng Heavy Industries is the subject of an insider-trading complaint filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC obtained an emergency US court order on Friday to freeze the assets of several share traders, including Zhang, for alleged illegal trading in connection with a US$15.1 billion takeover offer by state-owned China National Overseas Oil Corporation (CNOOC) for Canadian energy company Nexen.
The SEC alleged that Rongsheng has a 'strategic co-operation agreement' in terms of doing business with CNOOC.
Besides Rongsheng, which Zhang chairs as a non-executive director, he is founding chairman of Glorious Property Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed property developer. Forbes estimated Zhang's wealth at US$2.6 billion as of March.
Zhang could not immediately be reached for comment, but a Rongsheng spokesman said yesterday: 'As the filing involves the private affairs of one of the non-executive directors, it is not appropriate for Rongsheng to make further comment. Normal operations of the group will not be affected.'