賞金獵人幫美國投資者向中國公司討債
Robert W. Seiden is a Wall Street bounty hunter. He tracks down executives of Chinese companies that listed on stock exchanges in the United States and then blew up.
羅伯特·W·塞登(Robert W. Seiden)是華爾街的一名賞金獵人。他追蹤的是那些在美國上市而後爆倉的中國公司的高管。
It is a painstaking business that few are willing to do.
這是一項非常艱苦的工作，很少有人願意做。
One of his current targets is the chairman at Sino Clean Energy, who has battled with investors in a Nevada state court since 2014. On Feb. 16, the trial judge found the executive, Ren Baowen, in criminal contempt and ordered his arrest for failing to comply with earlier court orders.
塞登的目標之一就是中國清潔能源有限公司(Sino Clean Energy)董事長任寶文，任寶文從2014年開始在內華達州法院與投資者打官司。2月16日，庭審法官認爲任寶文刑事藐視法庭，並下令將他逮捕，理由是他未能遵守法庭之前的命令。
In an attempt to increase the pressure on Mr. Ren, Mr. Seiden, the court-appointed receiver for Sino Clean, prepared a notice about the arrest warrant to be published through PR Newswire, which distributes corporate news releases.
法庭指定塞登擔任中國清潔能源公司的資產管理人，爲了向任寶文加壓，他準備了一份逮捕令公告，計劃通過公司新聞發佈平臺美國企業新聞通訊公司（PR Newswire，簡稱美通社）發佈公告。
The release was published on Feb. 29 — but not in China, where Mr. Ren lives. PRNewswire, in an email to Mr. Seiden, said it had refused to publish the notice there citing “heightened political sensitivity concerning Chinese investment interests.”
公告於2月29日發佈，但沒有在任寶文生活的國家中國發布。美通社給塞登發送郵件稱，該公司拒絕在中國發布公告，理由是“關乎中國投資利益的高度政治敏感性”。
It was not the first time Mr. Seiden’s tactics have been thwarted. It is the reason many remain skeptical of his efforts. Nevertheless, he has embraced the challenge and become the go-to person for American investors who are suing Chinese companies saying that they were swindled.
這不是塞登的策略首次受挫。因此，很多人對他的努力持懷疑態度。但他還是接受了這項挑戰，如今在聲稱遭中國公司投機詐騙並提起訴訟的美國投資者眼裏，他是不二之選。
“Unless the Chinese government is coming to arrest me, I’m going to do whatever is legally permissible by court order,” Mr. Seiden said in a recent interview.
“除非中國政府來抓我，否則我會竭盡所能，做法庭命令允許的一切事情，”塞登最近接受採訪時說。
Mr. Seiden, 52, a former Manhattan prosecutor, has been appointed by judges as the receiver to oversee the management of nine Chinese companies — many incorporated in Nevada — that once traded shares in the United States.
52歲的塞登曾是曼哈頓的一名檢察官。法官指定他擔任資產管理人，監管九家曾在美國上市的中國公司——很多是在內華達州建立的公司。
But his actual dollar recoveries for investors have been small — just $8 million out of the nearly $90 million he has sought to recoup.
但他實際上爲投資者追回的資金非常少——他曾試圖收回將近9000萬美元，但實際上只拿到800萬美元。
A Sherlock Holmes enthusiast (a bust of the fictional detective sits on his desk in Manhattan), Mr. Seiden has built a reputation for being tenacious. And for good reason: Getting Chinese executives to pay up involves extensive meetings, negotiations and cooperation from Chinese authorities and bankers.
作爲夏洛克·福爾摩斯(Sherlock Holmes)迷（他在曼哈頓的桌子上擺着這位虛構偵探的半身像），塞登有着死纏爛打的名聲。這很有必要：讓中國高管付錢需要進行大量的會議、談判，以及中國當局及銀行從業人士的合作。
He is not just focused on China. He employs former agents from intelligence agencies around the world, including the Mossad in Israel and the K.G.B. in Russia, to help him conduct cloak-and-dagger investigations in places like Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
他不僅僅關注中國。他僱傭世界各地情報機構的前特工，比如以色列的摩薩德(Mossad)和俄羅斯的克格勃(KGB)，幫助他在俄羅斯、烏茲別克斯坦和哈薩克斯坦開展祕密調查。
He opened his company, Confidential Global Investigation, in 2008. Early on, he did work for hedge funds and their investors. But one of his first jobs in China was for Richemont, the company that owns luxury brands like Cartier, Piaget and Jaeger-LeCoultre. Mr. Seiden tracked down a ring of counterfeiters operating from Latvia and Scotland and manufacturing fake watches in China.
2008年，塞登創建了自己的公司祕密全球調查(Confidential Global Investigation)。早期，他爲對衝基金及其投資者工作。但他在中國接到的首批工作之一就是歷峯集團的項目，該公司旗下擁有卡地亞(Cartier)、伯爵(Piaget)和積家(Jaeger-LeCoultre)等奢侈品牌。塞登追蹤了一些在拉脫維亞和蘇格蘭運作、在中國生產的製假者。
In 2013, Mr. Seiden received a call from a lawyer representing a large investor in ZST Digital Networks, a Chinese equipment maker. A Delaware judge appointed Mr. Seiden as the company’s receiver to enforce the terms of a $32 million judgment on behalf of the investor. Mr. Seiden is still trying to get that money back, but the assignment started him on a new career path.
2013年，塞登接到中國設備製造商神陽科技公司一名大額投資者的代理律師的電話。特拉華州的法官指定塞登擔任該公司的資產管理人，代表投資者執行3200萬美元的判決。他仍在努力收回這筆錢，但這項任務讓他開闢了新的職業道路。
More work started to flow from investor lawsuits over reverse mergers. In those deals, Chinese companies looking to trade in the United States bypassed the traditional method of an initial public offering and instead merged with largely defunct companies that already had shares listed on an exchange in the United States.
投資者有關反向收購的訴訟，帶來了越來越多的工作。在這些交易中，希望在美國上市的中國公司繞開傳統的首次公開募股(IPO)的方式，而是併購一家已經在美國上市，但基本上已經停業的公司。
Starting in the mid-2000s, these companies drew a wave of interest from investors who thought they could get rich from China’s surging economic growth. But years later, they had little but burned fingers to show for their investments.
從2000年代中期開始，這些公司吸引了一波又一波的投資者，他們本以爲能夠在中國快速增長的經濟中獲利。但幾年後，他們一無所獲，損失慘重。
Many of the Chinese companies were soon engulfed in accounting irregularities or allegations of outright fraud. Others simply stopped submitting quarterly financial statements in the United States, leaving investors in the dark about what was happening with their operations in China.
很多這樣的中國公司很快就曝出會計違規的醜聞，或是被控進行明目張膽的詐騙。其他公司則停止在美國提交季度財務報表，致使投資者對公司在中國的運營情況毫不知情。
Critics say regulators have been slow to act.
批評人士表示，監管機構遲遲沒有采取行動。
“The U.S. regulators have been unwilling to go to the mat on this,” said Paul Gillis, an accounting professor at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University in Beijing.
“美國監管機構不願參加這場鬥爭，”北京大學光華管理學院會計學教授鮑大雷(Paul Gillis)說。
At the same time, there has been little political will to do anything about in China. “The responsibility for this stuff is spread out too widely, there are so many different Chinese bureaucracies involved,” Professor Gillis said.
與此同時，中國幾乎沒有對此採取措施的政治意願。“這種事的責任攤得太開了，涉及中國很多不同機構，”鮑大雷說。
But recently, Mr. Seiden has enlisted some officials in China. With the help of China’s Ministry of Finance and Commerce and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, Mr. Seiden collected $4 million from a settlement with Shengtai Pharmaceutical in 2015.
但最近，塞登爭取到了中國部分政府機構的幫助。2015年，在中國財政部、商務部和國家外匯管理局的幫助下，塞登與盛泰藥業達成和解，收回了400萬美元。
Mr. Seiden said that he expected to collect an additional $28 million within months as a result of current negotiations, including talks with Mr. Ren’s legal team.
塞登表示，目前正在與包括任寶文的法律團隊在內的相關各方談判，預計幾個月內會再收回2800萬美元。
In the case of Sino Clean Energy, a clean coal manufacturing company, Mr. Seiden contends in court filings that Mr. Ren “stole millions of dollars” from investors in the United States by “going dark.”
對於精煤生產企業中國清潔能源公司的案件，塞登在法庭文件中稱，任寶文“默不作聲”，從美國投資者那裏“竊取了數以百萬計的美元”。
The company, based in Xi’an, China, has not filed updated financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission since early 2012, according to the investor lawsuit.
投資者提起的訴訟顯示，從2012年初開始，總部位於西安的這家公司，就不再向美國證券交易委員會(Securities and Exchange Commission)提交最新的財務報表。
Sino Clean Energy listed its shares on the Nasdaq stock market after a reverse merger in 2006 with a largely defunct company called Endo Networks. It then raised more than $26 million in the United States.
2006年，在反向收購一家基本上已經停業的名叫恩多網絡(Endo Networks)的公司後，中國清潔能源在納斯達克上市。之後，該公司在美國籌集到了2600多萬美元。
Matthew C. Zirzow, the Las Vegas bankruptcy lawyer for Sino Clean, did not return a telephone call seeking comment. Another lawyer for Mr. Ren could not reached for comment.
爲中國清潔能源辯護的拉斯維加斯破產律師馬修·C·齊爾措(Matthew C. Zirzow)並未回覆請其置評的電話。記者也無法聯繫到任寶文的另一名代理律師，請其發表評論。
Investors in companies that Mr. Seiden is pursuing to recover money acknowledge that the efforts are long shots.
塞登爲收回資金而追查的那些公司的投資者承認，追款成功的機會渺茫。
John J. Kassay Jr. of Parksville, N.Y., said he lost about $20,000 on his investment in Sino Clean and joined the lawsuit in Nevada against Mr. Ren and the company to “take them to task.”
紐約州帕克斯維爾的小約翰·J·卡薩伊(John J. Kassay Jr.)說，他在中國清潔能源的投資損失了大約2萬美元。他加入了內華達州那樁起訴任寶文及其公司的訴訟，爲的是“讓他們承擔責任”。
Whatever money he gets back from the litigation will be worth it, he said.
他說，不管通過訴訟能拿回多少錢都是值得的。
Michael Sammons, a San Antonio investor who lost money in two Chinese companies, Weikang Bio-Technology Group and RINO International, said he could not find anyone other than Mr. Seiden to take on these cases.
聖安東尼奧的投資者邁克爾·薩蒙斯(Michael Sammons)投資了維康生物科技集團(Weikang Bio-Technology Group)和綠諾國際(RINO International)這兩家中國企業，均以虧本告終。他說，除了塞登，他找不到其他任何人接手這件事。
“He is pretty much the only game in town,” said Mr. Sammons, who said he first learned of Mr. Seiden’s name from an article three years ago in The Wall Street Journal.
“他幾乎是唯一的人選，”薩蒙斯說。他說自己是三年前通過《華爾街日報》(The Wall Street Journal)的一篇報道第一次聽說塞登的名字的。
Mr. Seiden’s firm has grown from a handful of employees, including Steven, his brother, to 20 employees. Chinese reverse merger cases account for about 80 percent of the firm’s work.
起初，塞登的公司只有包括他兄弟史蒂文(Steven)在內的幾名員工。現在，公司已經發展到了20名員工。在該公司的業務中，中國的反向收購案約佔80%。
“We are creating a pathway to get money back,” he said.
“我們正在闖出一條把錢追索回來的路，”他說。
A recent crackdown on financial firms because of turmoil in the Chinese stock market has heightened concerns about how China treats foreign business interests when they conflict with its own.
最近，因爲中國股市動盪，金融企業受到打壓。這加劇了投資者的一種擔憂：在本土企業與外國企業發生利益衝突時，中國會如何對待外國商業利益？
A spokeswoman for PRNewswire said it did not publish the release in China because of new Chinese government restrictions on what foreign companies may publish online.
美通社的發言人表示，該機構沒有發佈前述聲明，不是因爲中國政府新出臺的限制條款。條款對外國公司可以在網上發佈怎樣的內容做出了限制。
Yet while China can appear to be uncooperative with demands from outside investors, that attitude is changing as some Chinese leaders want to show that it can be a reliable business partner, Mr. Seiden argued.
塞登稱，儘管中國對境外投資者的訴求似乎並不配合，但由於中國一些領導人希望向外界表明中國能夠成爲一個靠得住的商業夥伴，這種態度正在發生轉變。
Still, when he is in China — where he spends up to one month a year — he uses disposable phones and changes his hotel room after he checks in to make it more difficult for people to track his whereabouts, he said.
但塞登表示，在中國時，他還是會使用一次性手機，並且會在酒店登記入住後更換房間，以增加他人掌握其行蹤的難度。一年中，他待在中國的時間會長達一個月。
The investors he represents say they sense that change could be underway. At the very least, they figure his help cannot hurt.
他代理的那些投資者表示，他們感覺可能起到了作用。至少，他們認爲他的幫助沒有壞處。
“It’s a big battle, and it’s a big unknown because it has not been done before,” said Alain Peracca, a former Microsoft executive and an investor in Sino Clean Energy. “It is the only hope that shareholders have.”
“這是一場大戰，是一個大大的未知數，因爲以前從來沒人這麼做過，”投資了中國清潔能源的微軟(Microsoft)前高管阿蘭·佩拉卡(Alain Peracca)說。“這是股東唯一的希望。”
