Managers, business partners of Hong Kong-listed company arrested over alleged HK$12 billion false accounting scheme
- Seven of the company’s managers and business partners were arrested in a series of raids on Tuesday
- Those detained accused of conspiring to fabricate multiple false trades to exaggerate revenue during the financial years of 2016 and 2017
Seven people, including former managers of a Hong Kong-listed commodity trading company, have been arrested on suspicion of conspiring to provide false accounting involving nearly HK$12 billion.
Four men and three women, aged 31 to 62, were detained when detectives from the commercial crime bureau and the Securities and Futures Commission raided the firm’s offices and those of its business partners on Tuesday, according to police.
The name of the firm was not released by police, but a force insider identified it as Long Well International Holdings Limited, formerly Tou Rong Chang Fu Group Limited.
The firm also said in an announcement on Tuesday that police and the commission had paid them a visit that day.
The trading of shares in Long Well, which deals in commodities and chemical products, property investment, money lending and crude oil, has been suspended since July 2018.
Those arrested comprised the company’s former management and its business partners, who allegedly conspired to fabricate multiple false trades to exaggerate revenue during the financial years of 2016 and 2017 involving a sum of HK$11.88 billion (US$1.5 billion), a police spokesman said. All the suspects were still detained.