Para leer el informe en espanol haga clic aquí (Citizens y CICA Life: Una Estratagia de Acciones Atroz) Research Summary Citizens Inc. (NYSE:CIA) uses a network of unregulated brokers to sell complex life insurance policies to foreign retail investors and retirees. The policies are sold through promises of outsized “guaranteed” returns backed by U.S. Treasury bonds. However, the money is not…

Pingtan Marine: A Fraud That Finances Human Trafficking and Poaching

Our research demonstrates that Pingtan Marine (PME) has engaged in fraudulent and illegal activities that conceal the reality that its shares likely have zero value.

Instead, most of the value appears to have already been transferred for the benefit of Pingtan’s Chairman and his family. The Chairman is using an alias to cloak his real identity from investors while sitting atop a syndicate of companies that use Pingtan to finance international crimes of fraud, poaching, and even human trafficking.

In what appear to be largely phony transactions, Pingtan has paid $910 million to the Chairman’s companies purportedly in exchange for fishing ships and fishing services. But substantial evidence shows that a significant portion of Pingtan’s fishing fleet actually consists of rusting hulks decaying inside abandoned fishing bases.

Farcically, Pingtan has paid the Chairman’s companies an average of $9 million per ship when the cost of new builds is only $1 million. Although Pingtan claims the majority of the embedded value comes from fishing licenses, our research shows that most of the licenses simply don’t exist. Even worse, many ships appear to have never even been transferred to shareholders to begin with.

To keep the funds from investors flowing, Pingtan has crafted a fictitious narrative and paid promoters to entice retail investors into buying its shares. The stock price has surged by a factor of 4x as management has fomented speculation that its fleet will soon be redeployed in Indonesia.

But Pingtan’s “growth story” is a hoax. Pingtan is specifically banned from Indonesia and a senior government minister has said she would report Pingtan to the NASDAQ upon suspicion of an “international fraud case.” Indonesian Armed Forces raided Pingtan’s key fishing base and the Government implicated Pingtan and its affiliates in serious crimes that include human trafficking, forced labor, illegal fishing, forgery, and bribing corrupt officials…

KGJI: A ‘Fraud School’ Success Story