赏金猎人帮美国投资者向中国公司讨债

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.

罗伯特·W·塞登(Robert W. Seiden)是华尔街的一名赏金猎人。他追踪的是那些在美国上市而后爆仓的中国公司的高管。

It is a painstaking business that few are willing to do.

这是一项非常艰苦的工作，很少有人愿意做。

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.

塞登的目标之一就是中国清洁能源有限公司(Sino Clean Energy)董事长任宝文，任宝文从2014年开始在内华达州法院与投资者打官司。2月16日，庭审法官认为任宝文刑事藐视法庭，并下令将他逮捕，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.

法庭指定塞登担任中国清洁能源公司的资产管理人，为了向任宝文加压，他准备了一份逮捕令公告，计划通过公司新闻发布平台美国企业新闻通讯公司（PR Newswire，简称美通社）发布公告。

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.”

公告于2月29日发布，但没有在任宝文生活的国家中国发布。美通社给塞登发送邮件称，该公司拒绝在中国发布公告，理由是“关乎中国投资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.

这不是塞登的策略首次受挫。因此，很多人对他的努力持怀疑态度。但他还是接受了这项挑战，如今在声称遭中国公司投机诈骗并提起诉讼的美国投资者眼里，他是不二之选。

“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.

“除非中国政府来抓我，否则我会竭尽所能，做法庭命令允许的一切事情，”塞登最近接受采访时说。

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岁的塞登曾是曼哈顿的一名检察官。法官指定他担任资产管理人，监管九家曾在美国上市的中国公司——很多是在内华达州建立的公司。

But his actual dollar recoveries for investors have been small — just $8 million out of the nearly $90 million he has sought to recoup.

但他实际上为投资者追回的资金非常少——他曾试图收回将近9000万美元，但实际上只拿到800万美元。

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.

作为夏洛克·福尔摩斯(Sherlock Holmes)迷（他在曼哈顿的桌子上摆着这位虚构侦探的半身像），塞登有着死缠烂打的名声。这很有必要：让中国高管付钱需要进行大量的会议、谈判，以及中国当局及银行从业人士的合作。

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.

他不仅仅关注中国。他雇佣世界各地情报机构的前特工，比如以色列的摩萨德(Mossad)和俄罗斯的克格勃(KGB)，帮助他在俄罗斯、乌兹别克斯坦和哈萨克斯坦开展秘密调查。

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，塞登创建了自己的公司秘密全球调查(Confidential Global Investigation)。早期，他为对冲基金及其投资者工作。但他在中国接到的首批工作之一就是历峰集团的项目，该公司旗下拥有卡地亚(Cartier)、伯爵(Piaget)和积家(Jaeger-LeCoultre)等奢侈品牌。塞登追踪了一些在拉脱维亚和苏格兰运作、在中国生产的制假者。

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，塞登接到中国设备制造商神阳科技公司一名大额投资者的代理律师的电话。特拉华州的法官指定塞登担任该公司的资产管理人，代表投资者执行3200万美元的判决。他仍在努力收回这笔钱，但这项任务让他开辟了新的职业道路。

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.

投资者有关反向收购的诉讼，带来了越来越多的工作。在这些交易中，希望在美国上市的中国公司绕开传统的首次公开募股(IPO)的方式，而是并购一家已经在美国上市，但基本上已经停业的公司。

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.

从2000年代中期开始，这些公司吸引了一波又一波的投资者，他们本以为能够在中国快速增长的经济中获利。但几年后，他们一无所获，损失惨重。

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.

很多这样的中国公司很快就曝出会计违规的丑闻，或是被控进行明目张胆的诈骗。其他公司则停止在美国提交季度财务报表，致使投资者对公司在中国的运营情况毫不知情。

Critics say regulators have been slow to act.

批评人士表示，监管机构迟迟没有采取行动。

“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.

“美国监管机构不愿参加这场斗争，”北京大学光华管理学院会计学教授鲍大雷(Paul Gillis)说。

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.

与此同时，中国几乎没有对此采取措施的政治意愿。“这种事的责任摊得太开了，涉及中国很多不同机构，”鲍大雷说。

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，塞登争取到了中国部分政府机构的帮助。2015年，在中国财政部、商务部和国家外汇管理局的帮助下，塞登与盛泰药业达成和解，收回了400万美元。

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，目前正在与包括任宝文的法律团队在内的相关各方谈判，预计几个月内会再收回2800万美元。

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.”

对于精煤生产企业中国清洁能源公司的案件，塞登在法庭文件中称，任宝文“默不作声”，从美国投资者那里“窃取了数以百万计的美元”。

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.

投资者提起的诉讼显示，从2012年初开始，总部位于西安的这家公司，就不再向美国证券交易委员会(Securities and Exchange Commission)提交最新的财务报表。

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，在反向收购一家基本上已经停业的名叫恩多网络(Endo Networks)的公司后，中国清洁能源在纳斯达克上市。之后，该公司在美国筹集到了2600多万美元。

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.

为中国清洁能源辩护的拉斯维加斯破产律师马修·C·齐尔措(Matthew C. Zirzow)并未回复请其置评的电话。记者也无法联系到任宝文的另一名代理律师，请其发表评论。

Investors in companies that Mr. Seiden is pursuing to recover money acknowledge that the efforts are long shots.

塞登为收回资金而追查的那些公司的投资者承认，追款成功的机会渺茫。

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.”

纽约州帕克斯维尔的小约翰·J·卡萨伊(John J. Kassay Jr.)说，他在中国清洁能源的投资损失了大约2万美元。他加入了内华达州那桩起诉任宝文及其公司的诉讼，为的是“让他们承担责任”。

Whatever money he gets back from the litigation will be worth it, he said.

他说，不管通过诉讼能拿回多少钱都是值得的。

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.

圣安东尼奥的投资者迈克尔·萨蒙斯(Michael Sammons)投资了维康生物科技集团(Weikang Bio-Technology Group)和绿诺国际(RINO International)这两家中国企业，均以亏本告终。他说，除了塞登，他找不到其他任何人接手这件事。

“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.

“他几乎是唯一的人选，”萨蒙斯说。他说自己是三年前通过《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)的一篇报道第一次听说塞登的名字的。

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)在内的几名员工。现在，公司已经发展到了20名员工。在该公司的业务中，中国的反向收购案约占80%。

“We are creating a pathway to get money back,” he said.

“我们正在闯出一条把钱追索回来的路，”他说。

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，因为中国股市动荡，金融企业受到打压。这加剧了投资者的一种担忧：在本土企业与外国企业发生利益冲突时，中国会如何对待外国商业利益？

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.

美通社的发言人表示，该机构没有发布前述声明，不是因为中国政府新出台的限制条款。条款对外国公司可以在网上发布怎样的内容做出了限制。

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.

塞登称，尽管中国对境外投资者的诉求似乎并不配合，但由于中国一些领导人希望向外界表明中国能够成为一个靠得住的商业伙伴，这种态度正在发生转变。

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，在中国时，他还是会使用一次性手机，并且会在酒店登记入住后更换房间，以增加他人掌握其行踪的难度。一年中，他待在中国的时间会长达一个月。

The investors he represents say they sense that change could be underway. At the very least, they figure his help cannot hurt.

他代理的那些投资者表示，他们感觉可能起到了作用。至少，他们认为他的帮助没有坏处。

“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.”

“这是一场大战，是一个大大的未知数，因为以前从来没人这么做过，”投资了中国清洁能源的微软(Microsoft)前高管阿兰·佩拉卡(Alain Peracca)说。“这是股东唯一的希望。”