One of the first in a long line of “bankers” responsible for creating the toxic waste known as Chinese Reverse Mergers, was a gentleman named Benjamin Wei (aka Wey). Read all about Wei in this article by Chris Byron from the New York Post and in this piece by Herb Greenberg.
Wei, and his silly sounding “New York Global Group“, based at 40 Wall St., brought one of the earliest of the China frauds to market when, in 2004, they created Bodisen Biotech (BBCZ) out of the Stratabid.com (SBID) shell and a thoroughly uninteresting Chinese fertilizer producer (and, cue poo jokes). Byron writes:
One reason for Bodisen’s silence may be Wei’s troubled past in the securities industry. He was fired by the company that hired him straight out of college, Wilbanks Securities, after just seven months on the job. Wilbanks claimed he had been running a financial consulting business secretly on the side. The National Association of Securities Dealers suspended his broker’s license and slapped him with a fine, but Wei seemed undeterred and quickly relaunched himself as CEO of his own firm, Benchmark Global Capital. His target market: the booming Chinese investment scene. Yet it wasn’t long before customer complaints began to pile up against him and Oklahoma state regulators were on his tail, leading eventually to his censure and a ban from selling securities in Oklahoma. So Wei moved his business to New York and started again. Yet he soon found himself fighting in court with his former partners in Oklahoma, who accused him of siphoning off money from Benchmark’s Chinese operations. So Wei opened up a whole new operation, New York Global Group, and put the bulk of its stock in the name of his wife. Then he changed the spelling of his last name to Wey and continued chasing up promotable opportunities in China without missing a beat.
Bodisen was only one of many New York Global Group deals, others include 2005’s son-of-Bodisen China Natural Gas, Inc. (CHNG), once a shell called Coventure International (CVNI), Deer Consumer Products (DEER) fka Tag Events (TGEV), and the subject of today’s brief post, AgFeed Industries (FEED), once a shell controlled by Vancouverite Robert Gelfand called Wallace Mountain Resources (WMTN).
AgFeed, besides sharing NY Global with many Chinese reverse mergers, shares a mysterious on-again, off-again, shareholder known as HAP Trading with such notable Chinese companies as Gulf Resources (GFRE) and Fushi Copperweld (FSIN). Read more about FEED here.
Since November 2010 a number of FEED‘s Chinese executives have departed, and after the closing bell on the 13th of April, a spate of filings were released which indicate that these individuals have recently, or are planning on, liquidating shares.
Yulin Zheng filed that on the 9th of April he sold 805,674 shares. According to the most recent 13D, he held 1,885,674 shares as of July 2009.
Zhengru Xiong filed that 805,674 shares were sold on the 9th of April, just like Zheng. And, from the same 13D, Xiong held 1.885mm shares.
Junqing Xiong filed to sell 2,356,074 shares. According to his most recent filing, he held 4,752,152 shares as of April 2010.
Finally, Li Songyan has filed to sell 734,328 shares. According to the April 2010 proxy statement Li held 1,826,328 shares of FEED.
What makes these filings a little unusual is that it appears FEED and its Chinese insiders have given up on New York Global Group and decamped for new bankers just across the way at 45 Wall Street. The firm handling these sales is none other than Dick Fuld’s (yes, that Dick Fuld, CRD# 215527) new home, penny stock outfit Legend Securities. Read more about Fuld and Legend in this article by Roddy Boyd, and in this piece from The Street.com. Hard to say who is moving up in the world, and who is falling down.