What is self-theft? Hong Kong listed company Weiqian China (0538. HK) taught everyone a lesson.
According to reports, on April 16, the case of Liu Jiahao, the chief financial officer in front of Wei Qianla, who was suspected of embezzling the company's public funds, ushered in the final sentence, and the defendant pleaded guilty to 7 counts of theft and was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison.
It is reported that Liu Jiahao used an erasable atomic pen to tamper with 180 company cheques in 7 years, improperly stealing about 26 million Hong Kong dollars from the company. Liu Jiahao's embezzlement of public funds has nothing to do with lack of money, and the motivation is actually because of depression and the use of company public funds to buy luxury goods.
The CFO of Ajisen stole about HK$26 million from the company
The reason is to buy luxury goods to reduce stress
According to reports, Achilles China was listed in Hong Kong in 2007 and Lau was appointed Chief Financial Officer, responsible for financial accounting and compliance control.
According to the information, Liu Jiahao, 46, chief financial officer, company secretary and qualified accountant of Weiqian, graduated from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University with a bachelor's degree in accounting. With over 10 years of experience in auditing, finance and business advisory, Mr. Lau has worked for Deloitte Kwan Wong Chan Fong and some Listed Companies in Hong Kong, joining Achien in 2007 and is arguably a 10-year veteran of Aichi.
Liu Jiahao usually fills out the cheque title and amount and then signs it with Pan Jiawen, the executive director of Weiqian, but since 2013, Liu Jiahao has been asking Poon Ka Man to sign an additional cheque, claiming to contribute to the MPF of employees.
In 2018, Liu Jiahao took the initiative to tell Pan Jiawen that he had stolen more than HK$10 million from the company by changing the company's cheque with a rewritable atomic pen, and then said that he was mentally ill and needed to apply for a week's sick leave, and the company found that the stolen money exceeded HK$26.52 million after investigation, and Liu Jiahao was dismissed by the company on December 14, 2018.
The defence pleaded that the defendant was a certified public accountant and had 1 son and 1 daughter with his wife. Suffering from depression due to work stress at the time of the crime, the solution was to buy luxury goods to reduce stress, according to the psychiatrist's diagnosis, he suffered from manic depression, but the situation gradually improved. The defendant knew that illness was not an excuse for committing a crime, and that he had done something wrong. After deducting his salary of nearly HK$660,000, Liu Jiahao improperly embezzled a total of HK$25.86 million, voluntarily added interest to the company, and compensated the company about HK$29.04 million, including audit fees and legal fees, after his confession.
Judge Li Yunteng pointed out that this case involved a serious violation of good faith, the defendant became more greedy and bold after successfully concealing the sky and crossing the sea, and the amount of theft became more and more than one year, but if the defendant did not confess 3 years ago, he may be able to continue to cover his eyes and ears, which shows his courage to voluntarily bear criminal responsibility, so he gave the defendant a total of 55% of the sentence deduction, and finally sentenced the defendant to 80 months imprisonment (6 years and 8 months).
The "Thousand Stores Project" was again in vain
The loss in 2020 was nearly 80 million
Ajisen Ramen was founded in Japan in 1968, and in 1996, Pan Wei, the founder of Ajisen China, introduced it to Hong Kong and the Mainland, and successively obtained the permanent operating rights of the brand in Hong Kong, Macau and the Mainland, and was listed on the Main Board of Hong Kong in March 2007.
Image source: Screenshot of the official Weibo of Ajisen Ramen
In the year of listing, Pan Wei ranked first in the "Hurun Catering Rich List" with a net worth of 6 billion yuan, and won the title for four consecutive years. Against this backdrop, Ajisen Ramen, with its 508 stores, first shouted the slogan "Five Years and a Thousand Stores" in 2010.
However, in 2011, Weiqian China was exposed to the "bone broth gate" incident, and its widely praised soup base was not boiled with large bone broth, but mixed with concentrate. After the "Bone Broth Gate" incident, the expansion rate of Weiqian China has slowed down. In 2014, it had only 669 stores nationwide.
Five years later, Pan Wei once again proposed the "Thousand Stores Plan" and, at the same time, invested in Baidu takeaway. But the failure of the investment took away a lot of cash flow, and Ajisen Ramen ended in a loss in 2017, until 2018, Ajisen Ramen net profit of 551 million yuan, surpassing the peak of 2010.
However, at the end of 2018, it was exposed that Chief Financial Officer Liu Jiahao had embezzled the company's funds, and Ajisen Ramen fell into the "corruption gate" storm. Until 2019, the number of Ajisen ramen stores was only 799, and a large number of stores were closed in the first half of 2020, and now five years have come, and the "Thousand Stores Plan" of Ajisen Ramen has not yet been realized.
On March 26, Aquisen China announced its results for the full year 2020 (ended December 31, 2020), during which the company's turnover decreased by 29% year-on-year to RMB1.82 billion, and the net profit loss was RMB77.868 million, compared with a net profit of RMB156 million in the same period last year, from profit to loss.
According to the financial report, in 2020, Ajisen Ramen will focus on closing stores that do not perform well and adopt a steady store opening strategy. As of December 31, 2020, Ajisen Ramen had 722 fast-casual restaurant chains, down 77 from 799 in the year-ago quarter.
As of press time, Agioson China was trading at HK$1.34 per share, down 90% from its all-time high, with a total market capitalization of only HK$1.463 billion.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Gu Wanquan Text Editor: Yang Rong Title Image Source: Figureworm Creative Photo Editor: Xiang Jianying
Source: Author: Daily Economic News