Athenex management’s proliferation for fraud precedes them.
October 24, 2019 – Viceroy expose more managerial ties to established frauds, and address Athenex’s response to our previous work, which addresses absolutely nothing. Management’s response underestimates how many improprieties are recorded in the public domain – we have yet to scratch the tip of the iceberg.
- The company’s response to Viceroy’s research is a further slap in the face to investors: the company has failed to address a single issue highlighted in any of our reports.
- Athenex’s two-paragraph rebuttal to Viceroy’s reports indicates management refuse to address any improprieties we have uncovered…to date. We believe Athenex will have a tough time explaining to shareholders why their flagship drug is commercially unviable, justifying abusive related party transactions, and explaining why facility pictures are blatantly photoshopped.
- Athenex’s rebuttal state that management “take pride” in its integrity. This is hilarious given management’s track record of overseeing blatant frauds.
- In case Sino Forest and Suntech weren’t enough, Viceroy now reveals direct ties between Athenex directors and more established frauds, responsible for evaporating billions of dollars of shareholder capital: GCL Poly/Silicon, China Lumena.
- Several individuals involved with Zhang’s previous shady ventures are now embedded in the Athenex organization including the Audit committee.
- Viceroy reveal Athenex Audit Committee member, John Koh, was also a director of Mandra, alongside Songyi Zhang, with direct fiduciary obligation to oversee Sino Forest.
- Zhang was previously a director of China Lumena, which was found to have significantly fabricated its revenues. In addition to this, a subsidiary that had fabricated ~90% of its revenues was sold to China Lumena by Zhang through several of his investment vehicles.
- Zhang was also previously at GCL Silicon where he effectively front-ran an acquisition of that company by GCL-Poly Energy in concert with Zuo Gongshan, the CEO of the latter. This netted Zhang a share in US$200m cash, US$350m in secured notes and a 5% stake in GCL-Poly.
- SinoPhyto solutions, the side-hustle of Athenex Chief Medical Officer Rudolf Min-Fun Kwan and CEO/Chairman Johnson Lau purports to be a seller of traditional Chinese medicines. However, the company’s New Jersey certificate indicates it is an investment company. SinoPhyto has only received one shipment. We question the true purpose of this entity.