China Court Seizes Assets of LeEco Boss Jia Yueting
Jia Yueting, founder of China’s entertainment and tech group LeEco, has found himself in deeper trouble. A Chinese court said that it had seized all his available assets in China.
Jia was already required by securities regulators to return to China by Dec. 31 to sort out the growing corporate meltdown. His whereabouts are currently unknown.
A statement released this week by the Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court, said that Jia’s assets including $196,000 (RMB1.3 million) bank deposits, two properties in Beijing and his 1 billion shares in the listed Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp have been seized. The court agreed to act on a petition filed by a Fujian-based securities firm which says that Jia owes it $30.7 million (RMB200 million.)
Separately, LeEco’s Hong Kong subsidiary LE Corporation applied to a local court for the appointment of a provisional liquidator, a week after it filed to wind up the company. But it is unknown if the court approved the application.
LeEco’s financial troubles have been in the open for over a year, and are despite rescue efforts by property developer Sunac China, which this week increased its stake in movie subsidiary Le Vision Pictures.
It had been reported that Jia was unable to return to China while he sorts out his problematic investments in his U.S. car businesses. That caught the attention of Chinese authorities, including the China Securities Regulatory which ordered Jia back to China.
“We require you to return to the country as soon as you see this statement,” the CSRC wrote, “We have made our demands repeatedly through your listed company, but haven’t seen any action from your side.” The commission also lambasted Jia for creating an “extremely terrible” impact on society for the mishandling of LeEco’s business and its mountainous debts.
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