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Money Matters | Civil action against Hanergy shows SFC is just a chained lion

Regulatory black box in China curtails Hong Kong’s fraud and manipulation investigation

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FILE - In this file photo taken Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013, Li Hejun, chairman and CEO of Hanergy Group Ltd., gestures during a press conference at the company's headquarters in Beijing, China. In 2014, Hanergy was ranked No. 23 on the MIT Technology Review’s list of the world’s 50 “smartest companies.” (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File)

Don’t be fooled by our regulators’ legal actions and strong words against Li Hejun, the controlling shareholder of the notorious Hanergy Thin Film Power Group.

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It is the roar of a lion chained down by the regulatory black box up north that makes investigations against mainland corporates impossible.

The filing of civil action is telling. Li will not face criminal proceedings amid the thundering queries of whether Hanergy’s numbers and trading prices were genuine.

Instead, he will be banned from any directorships in Hong Kong and pay Hanergy three billion yuan of receivables for the company, suspended since May 2015, to resume trading.

This is the result of a three-month negotiation between Li and the Securities and Futures Commission.

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Such a “penalty” is disproportional to the damage Li has done to the reputation of Hong Kong, both internationally and at home.

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