(IDEX Online ) - A Chinese jewelry firm based in Wuhan stands accused of securing loans with eighty-three tons of fake gold.
Kingold Jewelry is a Nasdaq-listed company based in the city which reported the world's first cases of coronavirus.
The allegation made in Caixin, a Chinese publication known for its investigative journalism, is that Kingold used copper-alloy bars with a gold leaf coating as collateral against loans totaling $2.8bn from more than a dozen of the country's financial institutions over a five-year period.
Kingold, which brands itself as "A Company With A Golden Future", was founded in 2002 and sold jewelry worth $1.4bn in 2016, according to its website. Its shares fell 57 per cent after publication of the Caixin cover story.
The alleged fraud was exposed in February when a bank sought to liquidate Kingold collateral to cover defaulted debts and discovered all the glitters is not gold.
Test results show the "gold" is actually a copper alloy, but Kingold's chairman Jia Zhihong is adamant the company has done nothing wrong....