A report issued today on Guangxun Xu states that Finchley International Investments sold shares of Bodisen Biotech, Inc. (OTC: BBCZ $0.24) worth more than $2 million. Bodisen was delisted after authorities discovered incomplete and improper disclosures of payments to a stock-promoter.
Finchley sold its Bodisen stock through Seaboard Securities, an oft-disciplined and fined broker in Florham Park, New Jersey. In 2003 a Seaboard broker was sentenced to 27 months in prison for selling fake securities, and a Federal indictment unsealed in 2001 in the Southern District of New York names two former Seaboard brokers.
Stock-promoter Benjamin Wey (aka Benjamin Wei) and his firm New York Global Group served as Bodisen’s investor relations representative and financial advisor, and New York Global completed financings for Bodisen. Two articles from Dow Jones Newswires and the New York Post highlight some of the questionable circumstances surrounding Wey, his firm, and their services to Chinese reverse mergers.
Wey is reportedly banned from selling securities in Oklahoma, where he started his securities industry career.
Wey was also behind other questionable Chinese reverse mergers such as AgFeed Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: FEED $4.54) and Shiner International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BEST $1.63).
The only other SEC filing where Finchley International appears is a registration statement for FEED.
In November 2006, Bodisen announced receiving notice from the AMEX that the company was not in compliance with listing standards because of “insufficient or inaccurate disclosures in its public filings with regard to its relationship with, and payments to, a consultancy firm.” After the AMEX announcement, Bodisen’s shares fell 20% in one day. In an 8-K filed January 5, 2007, Bodisen made clear that the “consultancy firm” that was the subject of the AMEX inquiry was indeed Wey’s New York Global Group. In March 2007, Bodisen was delisted from the AMEX.
Wey and NASDAQ’s Guangxun Xu are pictured together on the Chinese website of New York Global Group, where Xu reportedly announced the successful listing on NASDAQ of a Chinese company, according to a translation.