dodgy buggers...., page-3

Just got this from another site, interesting ??????

Hanlong's past open to scrutiny
John Garnaut
September 14, 2011

Hanlong founder Liu Han has had to dodge an assassin's bullets.
BEFORE regulators pounced on Hanlong Group's executives in Australia yesterday, their superiors in China had long been dodging bullets relating to their securities dealings, sometimes literally.

In February 1997, an assassin fired two shots at Hanlong's founder and chief executive, Liu Han, as he was about to leave a hotel in his home town of Guanghan in Sichuan.

The bullets missed, Mr Liu escaped with his life and a multibillionaire called Yuan Baojing was later executed for arranging the attempted murder, according to local court reports at the time.

Their dispute had arisen because Yuan believed Mr Liu had conspired with market regulators to strip him of 90 million yuan in relation to a futures contract.

Since then Hanlong executives have dodged a volley of insider trading, market manipulation and tax allegations, even as the company's overseas bankers have been talking up the company's bona fides.

Hanlong yesterday sought to quarantine its regulatory problems in Australia, saying the three relevant executives had been stood down and a new manager was on his way.

The company ''is not under investigation and is conducting business as usual'', a spokesman said.

But yesterday's move by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission to freeze assets and impose travel bans raises broader questions about Hanlong's corporate culture.

And it has potentially global implications.

It is believed to be the first time an overseas regulator has moved on insider trading allegations in relation to a major Chinese overseas investment.

The private share of China's overseas investment is rapidly growing from a low base, partly because of the political sensitivity to Chinese-government-backed companies.

But private entrepreneurs could potentially export a new set of regulatory challenges, coming from a domestic environment where the law is weak, corruption is rife and money is made quickly because it can so quickly disappear.

This year has seen a series of sensational fraud allegations against Chinese companies that have ''reverse-listed'' on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

Hanlong chief Liu Han and his Australian operations head Xiao Hui (Stephen Xiao) - who had his assets frozen yesterday - had told Chinese media that Beijing was backing their bid for strategic reasons.

Ironically, Mr Liu said the deal would go through because Australia was ''a rule-of-law country'' and had no law to block it.

In 2008, the China Securities Regulatory Commission placed share trading bans in relation to Hanlong-related listed companies suspected of breaching trading laws.

More recently, someone claiming to be a tax official dumped a large dossier on the internet detailing claims about how Hanlong evaded 1.5 billion yuan in tax in Mianyang city.

''There are internet reports saying Liu Han succeeded in stopping a central government tax investigation but that's not true - they are here now,'' a wealthy Chengdu-based businessman told The Age.

The businessman said he had been approached by Mr Liu to invest in a large natural gas project in Yunnan province but had declined because of colourful media reports.

Mr Liu made his early money trading steel futures in Sichuan. Acquaintances say he made his big money after building a securities trading platform.

The family-held conglomerate now controls several listed companies and runs a portfolio of businesses that ranges from real estate to bio-tech, hydro power, infrastructure, photovoltaic cells, communications, education and tourism.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/hanlongs-past-open-to-scrutiny-20110913-1k7so.html#ixzz1XtU60YHP