Executive directors hit back; war of words at Sino-Environment escalates
By CHEW XIANG 28 November 2009
Sino- Environment’s three executive directors (EDs) have hit back at the company’s independent directors as a war of words continues to escalate.
Sun Jiangrong, You Shengquan and Li Shouxin said independent directors (IDs) Goh Chee Wee and Wong Chiang Yin had no grounds to say the dismissal of financial controller Raynauld Liang was unjustified and not in the company’s best interest.
Mr. Liang was sacked on Nov 11 because, according to the EDs, he released public statements without approval and failed to pay interest on convertible bonds, leading to an event of default.
The IDs dispute this, saying the allegations are misleading and baseless and that they were not consulted on Mr. Liang’s dismissal.
Yesterday, the EDs said Mr. Liang had sent a copy of a PricewaterhouseCoopers report on the company to ‘undesirable elements in China not connected in any way to the company or to the China authorities’.
‘At the behest of Mr. Liang, the report has been used by these undesirable elements in China to threaten the EDs for the past one and half months in Fuzhou City,’ the EDs said.
They also repeated their objections to $952,874 in fees charged by PwC and said they are prepared to cooperate with another firm appointed to carry out an independent investigation.
They also objected to the independent directors’ use of company funds to pay Wong Partnership $268,946 in fees from April to date.
In addition, they said they had not been kept informed about work done by nTan Corporate Advisory on restructuring a convertible bond issue, and will call for a board meeting on Tuesday to discuss nTan’s work and a proposal by the IDs to put the company into judicial management.
Mr. Sun lost his controlling stake in the company last year after a hedge fund enforced a claim on the pledged stake.
This triggered a default on $149 million of convertible bonds. Mr. Sun and his management team resigned en masse - before being persuaded to stay.
An independent review in October found evidence of questionable cash transactions, and the IDs subsequently filed police reports in Singapore, China and Hong Kong.
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Executive directors hit back; war of words at Sino-Environment escalates
By CHEW XIANG
28 November 2009
Sino- Environment’s three executive directors (EDs) have hit back at the company’s independent directors as a war of words continues to escalate.
Sun Jiangrong, You Shengquan and Li Shouxin said independent directors (IDs) Goh Chee Wee and Wong Chiang Yin had no grounds to say the dismissal of financial controller Raynauld Liang was unjustified and not in the company’s best interest.
Mr. Liang was sacked on Nov 11 because, according to the EDs, he released public statements without approval and failed to pay interest on convertible bonds, leading to an event of default.
The IDs dispute this, saying the allegations are misleading and baseless and that they were not consulted on Mr. Liang’s dismissal.
Yesterday, the EDs said Mr. Liang had sent a copy of a PricewaterhouseCoopers report on the company to ‘undesirable elements in China not connected in any way to the company or to the China authorities’.
‘At the behest of Mr. Liang, the report has been used by these undesirable elements in China to threaten the EDs for the past one and half months in Fuzhou City,’ the EDs said.
They also repeated their objections to $952,874 in fees charged by PwC and said they are prepared to cooperate with another firm appointed to carry out an independent investigation.
They also objected to the independent directors’ use of company funds to pay Wong Partnership $268,946 in fees from April to date.
In addition, they said they had not been kept informed about work done by nTan Corporate Advisory on restructuring a convertible bond issue, and will call for a board meeting on Tuesday to discuss nTan’s work and a proposal by the IDs to put the company into judicial management.
Mr. Sun lost his controlling stake in the company last year after a hedge fund enforced a claim on the pledged stake.
This triggered a default on $149 million of convertible bonds. Mr. Sun and his management team resigned en masse - before being persuaded to stay.
An independent review in October found evidence of questionable cash transactions, and the IDs subsequently filed police reports in Singapore, China and Hong Kong.
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