The Hong Kong stock exchange listing committee censured Hong Kong-listed China e-Wallet Payment Group and its directors for incorrectly reporting the company’s results for the first six months of 2015. 

On August 28, 2015, China e-Wallet Payment reported a net loss of HK$12 million (US$1.5 million) for the sixth months through June 2015. Then, on Monday 14 September 2015, the company issued a clarification which stated that its profit for the period was actually HK$281.5 million (US$36 million). 

The error was because a report of China e-Wallet Payment’s investment in another Hong Kong company, umbrella maker China Jicheng Holdings, did not reach China e-Wallet Payment’s accounting committee, the filing said. 

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According to the company’s website, China e-Wallet Payment, formerly known as RCG Holdings, is principally engaged in the provision of biometric and RFID products and solution services, but a certain proportion of the group’s assets are used for financial asset investments. 

The investments were managed by Wang Zhongling, the company’s chief executive, who informed the board of the status of the investments every six months by post and in a follow up telephone call. 

However, around May 2015, Wang fell ill. The Hong Kong stock exchange filing said he posted the information to the company’s accounting team in Malaysia, but did not follow up with a phone call to the company’s chief financial officer. 

The posted information was lost in transit, and, as a result, the accounting committee assumed that there was no update on the investments for the first six months of 2015 and prepared the results accordingly.