WUJIANG, CHINA--(Marketwired - Sep 19, 2014) - China Commercial Credit, Inc. (NASDAQ: CCCR), a microfinance company in Jiangsu Province, today responded to inquiries by shareholders regarding the recent halting of trading in the company's NASDAQ-listed shares.
Interim CEO Mr. Long (Leo) Yi said that on September 12, 2014, NASDAQ sent the company an Information Request seeking additional information on CCCR's 8-K filing of the same date disclosing that approximately $1.1 million had been transferred from one of the company's bank accounts without proper authorization. CCCR has responded to this Information Request.
Further, as stated in the 8-K of September 12, the company's board of directors has formed a Special Committee to investigate all circumstances surrounding this unauthorized transfer of funds. This Committee is comprised of two independent directors, Mr. John Levy and Mr. Jingen Ling. The Special Committee is in the process of finalizing the retention of independent counsel to assist in this investigation.
CCCR has prepared a draft Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2014, and will update the subsequent event note to reflect the unauthorized transfer. The company has had several discussions with its independent auditors, Marcum L.P., and the Special Committee intends to keep Marcum fully informed on the progress of the investigation.
"The business and operations of the company are continuing and functioning, and we are committed to resolving all of these issues as quickly as possible and then filing our 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30," concluded Mr. Yi.
Mr. Yi, who is also the company's CFO, was appointed interim CEO when the company's CEO, Mr. Huichin Qin, resigned on August 25.
About China Commercial Credit
China Commercial Credit (http://www.chinacommercialcredit.com), founded in 2008, provides business loans and loan guarantee services to more than 240 small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), farmers and individuals in China's Jiangsu Province. Due to recent legislation and banking reform in China, these SMEs, farmers and individuals -- which historically had been excluded from borrowing funds from State-owned and commercial banks -- are now able to borrow money at competitive rates from microfinance lenders. According to 2012 data, SMEs account for eight of ten jobs in China and comprise nearly 60 percent of the nation's GDP. Utilizing proceeds of the recently completed secondary public offering, the company intends to commence its financial leasing business.
Investors seeking additional information on CCCR or wishing to register for company Email Alerts may go to http://www.ir-site.com/china-commercial-credit/default.asp or the Asia IR/PR client page at http://asia-irpr.com/clients/cccr/.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of United States securities laws. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this release to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations. You should review the factors described in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in our prospectus filed with the SEC on May 9, 2014 and other documents we file from time to time with the SEC. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.