Hong Kong-listed Wison Engineering, one of the companies implicated in the graft scandal engulfing China’s oil and gas sector, said authorities have seized the company’s records and frozen its bank accounts.
Wison’s chairman Hua Bangsong isn’t reachable, according to the Wall Street Journal and other sources.
Hua, who owns about 80% of Wison, was reported earlier this month to be assisting in China’s investigation of state-owned China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) and its subsidiary, PetroChina.
Most of Wison’s revenue has come from contracts with PetroChina.
Wison also said Thursday its CFO, Chen Wenfeng, resigned to pursue other business opportunities.
The company made the disclosures in a statement filed with the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Last month, Jiang Jiemin, the former chairman of CNPC, was fired and placed under disciplinary investigation after authorities announced a corruption probe into four CNPC senior managers.
Wison said in its statement, ‘As part of their investigations, the regulatory authorities made enquiries about certain projects and have taken books and records and frozen certain bank accounts.’
Zhao Hongbin, a financial manager of a Wison subsidiary, was also said to be ‘assisting in the investigation.’
PetroChina trades on exchanges in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and New York.
Wison is based in Shanghai.
Trading in its shares was suspended earlier this month.
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Richard L. Cassin is the Publisher and Editor of the FCPA Blog. He can be contacted here.
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