The latest charges of fraud in a Chinese company traded in the United States were filed this week by the Securities and Exchange Commission against two former executives of a Chinese coal company who the commission says stole and sold the company’s assets before they raised more than $100 million from public investors in the United States.
In some ways, the theft was not the most audacious part of the strange case of Puda Coal, which traded on the NYSE Amex stock exchange in New York. The attempted cover-up, involving a forged letter from a Chinese state-owned entity and a fake takeover offer, were even more brazen.