China detains CEO of U.S.-listed P2P firm Fincera for suspected financial crime

[December 13, 2019]  BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police on Friday detained the chairman and chief executive officer of New York-listed Fincera Inc <YUANF.PK> for suspected financial crime.

Li Yonghui, a Canadian national, is suspected of illegal acceptance of public funds, Shijiazhuang police in northern Hebei said in a post on its official social media account.

Police said they also detained Fincera's legal representative Shen Hui and several other people. The company did not answer phone calls from Reuters seeking comment.

Fincera, once the largest peer-to-peer lending platform in Hebei province by loans, was caught in a regulatory crackdown of the country's P2P firms and forced to close, according to documents acquired by Reuters in August.

(Reporting by Cheng Leng and Ryan Woo)

[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.