A group of Republican lawmakers are urging the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, to investigate Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges, after “billions of dollars were snatched” from American investors following a crackdown on firms by officials in China.
Senators John Kennedy (R-La.) Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) sent a letter (pdf) to Gensler on July 28, referring to a situation involving Chinese vehicle-for-hire company Didi.
Didi held its initial public offering (IPO) on the New York stock exchange earlier this month.
Immediately following the IPO, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) cyber arm, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) opened an investigation into the company claiming that it violated Chinese private and national security laws and cut off downloads of its app.
“Prior to the offering, Didi officials and executives downplayed the risks of imminent Chinese regulations in its IPO prospectus filed at the SEC, despite news reports that the CCP warned Didi officials to delay the IPO,” the senators wrote in their letter. “During the listing, Didi officials even purposefully kept a low profile, seeking to avoid more scrutiny from Beijing. The IPO successfully raised $4.4 billion, largely from U.S.-based investors.”
The senators said that Didi’s stock price plummeted two days after its IPO as a result of the latest CAC crackdown.
“The timing of the CAC investigation conveniently occurred after the company was able to snatch billions of dollars from American investors,” they wrote. “In fact, recent reports suggest that the CCP will penalize Didi almost $3 billion, which means that these American dollars could be going directly into CCP coffers.”
The senators urged Gensler to launch investigations into potentially fraudulent Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges, like Didi, as well as their underwriters, to combat potential fraud and reporting oversights.
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