Short-seller Bonitas Research has attacked a US-listed Chinese peer-to-peer lender, accusing it of fraud, as the $120bn industry has been rocked by billion-dollar scandals and a severe regulatory crackdown.
Bonitas said in a report that Beijing-based lender Hexindai lied to investors about crucial performance indicators in the prospectus for its 2017 initial public offering on Nasdaq.
This is alleged to have included exaggerating cumulative profits since the start of its business by more than 14-times. Bonitas — launched last year by Matthew Wiechert, co-founder of well-known short-seller Glaucus Research — said it reached that conclusion based on filings from Hexindai’s largest guarantee insurance supplier.