In early May, we took a look (catch up here) at now halted China Integrated Energy (CBEH), and one of its directors. CBEH, the subject of several scathing reports here and here, was once called China Bio Energy Holdings and before that it was a lowly shell called Intl Imaging Systems (IISY).
While looking through the CBEH filings, one of the members of the Board of Directors stands apart from the rest. “Christopher” Wang Wenbing. C-Wang could be our first Chinese contender for a “Bad Directors” award, joining Americans G. Michael Bennett and Lawrence Schafran. Not only was Christopher a Board Member of CBEH, since September 2009, but he has also been on the board of Muddy Waters exposed scam Orient Paper (ONP) since October, 2009. ONP started out life as a Carson City, NV shell called Carlateral (CARZ). Read more about Orient Paper here.
C-Wang spends the bulk of his time, it seems, at yet another Chinese reverse-merger company, Fushi Copperweld (FSIN). Christopher was, from December 2005 until August 2009 and again from February to October 2010, the CFO of Fushi, he now serves as the President and a Director. FSIN merged into a dirty shell called Parallel Technologies (PLLK) in January 2006. Parallel was itself a failed reverse-merger, the original shell was a company called M, Inc. It was a true penny stock, having gone public in 1983 at 1 cent per share. Parallel was halted by the SEC way back in June 2004. In an interesting aside, only a few months before the halt, control of PLLK was bought by notorious shell man Glenn A. Little. Little operates a huge stable of shells out of sunny Midland, TX. BuyersStrike! readers might be familiar with two other members of the Little family of reverse mergers, China Agritech (CAGC) and RINO International (RINO). Both of these fine firms were born from Glenn A. Little shells.
Like the bad director nominees before him, too much is never enough for a guy like Chris. He also serves on the board of General Steel Holdings (GSI). General Steel is a heavily indebted, NYSE listed, Chinese reverse-merger company that started life in 2002 as a Nevada based shell, American Construction Company (ACNS). In October 2004, a small provider of hot rolled steel sheets was stuffed into the shell, and GSI was born. In November 2007, Wenbing Wang joined the board.
Even more interesting are the firms where Chris is no longer on the board. He left the Board of Shengtai Pharma (SGTI). SGTI shares zoomed from 80c to $12 in the China frenzy of 2007, only to fall to $1.60 today. Shengtai, a maker of glucose (yes, sugar) was once a shell called West Coast Cars Co. (WCSC). But this was not the first time the Shengtai factory tried to foist itself onto the US markets. In 2004 there was a deal to merge the Chinese outfit with a n outfit that can only be described as filthy, the Florida based Bio-One (BICO). From the April 2004 press release announcing the deal:
ORLANDO, Fla., April 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Bio-One Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: BICO) announced today that it has acquired majority control of WeiFang Shengtai Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd, a Chinese manufacturer and distributor of glucose in China. The Shandong Province-based company reported audited revenues of US$16.3 million with a net income of US$2.3 million and assets of US$17.4 million in 2003. The transaction involved a cash payment of US$2 million and US$4.1 million in Bio-One convertible preferred stock priced at $2.00 a share with 12 month and 24 month lock-up provisions.
The team responsible, on the BICO side, for the merger were CEO Armand Dauplaise and his M&A man, Bernard Shinder. Read more about BICO here and here. In 2004 the SEC revoked BICO‘s registration. In 2005 Armand was kicked out of the company. The decrepit factory in China, once bought by BICO for $2mm and some worthless stock, was flipped, just two years later for a hair under $3mm, and then stuffed into the WCSC shell. In June 2007 C-Wang joined the SGTI board. He left at the end of October 2009, not long after the company issued a bizarre 8K stating that it had actually downgraded its auditor from the lowly Moore Stephens to the vile Kabani & Co.
On October 20, 2009, we terminated the appointment of our current independent registered public accounting firm, Moore Stephens Wurth Frazer and Torbet, LLP (“Moore Stephens”) and on the same day, we appointed Kabani & Company, Inc. (“Kabani”) as our new independent registered public accounting firm.
Read more about Kabani including what the PCAOB had to say here, and here.
And that brings us to C-Wang’s final board seat. He sat on the Board of Energroup Holdings (ENHD) from March 2010, to January 2011. The company, surprise, is another Chinese reverse-merger, having begun its life as a Utah shell called Great Lakes Funding in 1985. The shell was controlled by Duane Jenson, run by figureheads Stephen Fry and Thomas Howells, and audited by Mantyla McReynolds. Interestingly, the Jenson-Mantyla team was also responsible for Northern Oil and Gas (NOG). Read Bronte Capital’s excellent expose of NOG, Duane, and Mantyla here. Duane, until the early 70s ran a Salt Lake City based bucket shop, Transamerican Securities, whose license was revoked. Read more about that here.
In 2007 control of the shell was acquired by the Halters, a family that BuyersStrike! readers have seen mentioned time and again in connection to reverse merger companies of only the highest quality and finest pedigree. A partial list includes such winners as halted Ping Luo stocks China Ritar Power (CRTP) and Wonder Auto (WATG). miraculously still trading Ping Luo special China Marine Food (CMFO), Gene Michael Bennett‘s China Pharma Holdings, Inc. (CPHI) and Larry Goldman reverse-merger stocks China GengSheng Minerals (CHGS) and Winner Medical Group (WWIN). With the assistance of a bucket shop, Redwood Capital, staffed by Gunn Allen alumni, the Energroup shell merged with a small Chinese pork processor. Energroup shares, which traded above $5 a year ago, currently trade for 15c and were delisted and kicked down to the Pink Sheets in January of 2011.
Christopher Wang Wenbing knows Redwood (itself traded on the Pink Sheets as RDWD for $0.0003 per share, yes 3/100ths of a cent!) extremely well. RDWD was responsible not only for ENHD but also for the FSIN reverse merger into the Little shell, and C-Wang worked on the deal for RDWD his employer at the time.
From Pink Sheet bucket-shop employee to Chinese reverse-merger executive, to board member of several fine Chinese reverse-merger superstars, C-Wang is truly a worthy nominee for a Bad Directing Award.
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