This is not good - what if this is a commonly used trick at Amazon, Ebay, etc…
After Sino-Forest, I tread very lightly when it comes to Chinese investments. Its one of those markets that IMO generally fails to offer sufficent IRR for the potential crap. In other words, if it turned out BABA activity was 90% fraud, I wouldn’t be in the least surprised. Perhaps its legit. But its not worth, in my opinion, the risk.
Oh yes I remember Sino-Forest, I’m pretty sure I still have that muddywaters research report somewhere that IMO triggered the debate around its valuations