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Forestry firm panel findings dismissed
Source: Agencies |
November 16, 2011, Wednesday
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A panel of Sino-Forest Corp directors said yesterday that it has found no evidence of fraud by the Chinese forestry company after allegations by a United States financial firm caused its shares traded in Canada to plunge.
The panel named in June to investigate the accusations by Muddy Waters that Sino-Forest overstated the value of timber holdings in China rejected them in an interim report on the company website. It said Sino-Forest's reports of its cash balances, title and contractual rights and value of its assets were accurate.
"We can categorically say Sino-Forest is not the 'near total fraud' and 'Ponzi scheme' as alleged by Muddy Waters," CEO Judson Martin said in a statement. He is a prominent Canadian financial figure and Sino-Forest deputy board chairman who was appointed after Allen Chan resigned in August as chairman and CEO.
Muddy Waters dismissed the panel's findings.
"It should be noted that all three directors who oversaw the investigation are defendants in shareholder lawsuits, and one of the three resigned just prior to this release," Muddy Waters said in a statement. "We believe this release has no credibility."
Sino-Forest, once Canada's most valuable publicly traded forestry business, is under investigation by Canadian and Chinese authorities. Shareholders are suing the company, seeking US$7.5 billion for losses due to the share price decline.
The panel named in June to investigate the accusations by Muddy Waters that Sino-Forest overstated the value of timber holdings in China rejected them in an interim report on the company website. It said Sino-Forest's reports of its cash balances, title and contractual rights and value of its assets were accurate.
"We can categorically say Sino-Forest is not the 'near total fraud' and 'Ponzi scheme' as alleged by Muddy Waters," CEO Judson Martin said in a statement. He is a prominent Canadian financial figure and Sino-Forest deputy board chairman who was appointed after Allen Chan resigned in August as chairman and CEO.
Muddy Waters dismissed the panel's findings.
"It should be noted that all three directors who oversaw the investigation are defendants in shareholder lawsuits, and one of the three resigned just prior to this release," Muddy Waters said in a statement. "We believe this release has no credibility."
Sino-Forest, once Canada's most valuable publicly traded forestry business, is under investigation by Canadian and Chinese authorities. Shareholders are suing the company, seeking US$7.5 billion for losses due to the share price decline.
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