Li Hejun, the entrepreneur and founder of solar energy group Hanergy who was briefly China’s richest man, has been disqualified from the management of any corporation in Hong Kong for eight years.
In a series of investigative reports into Hanergy in 2015, the Financial Times detailed creative use by its Hong Kong listed subsidiary Hanergy Thin Film Power of unpaid receivables from its parent to book profits, its reliance on China’s shadow banking market for funding and the tendency of its shares to book all their gains in the last 10 trading minutes of each day.
Shares in Hanergy Thin Film remain suspended more than two years after they abruptly plunged, wiping out $19bn in paper value in half an hour.