Unconfirmed Report: Miner Manufacturer IPO Halts Due to Alleged Illicit Finance Practices

Investigators have reportedly halted the public listing process of cryptocurrency mining machine manufacturer Ebang International on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, local financial news outlet Sina Finance reported Oct. 14.

Ebang International operates in the field of Application-Specific Integrated Circuit chip design and production, telecommunications services, and the development, manufacture and sale of blockchain processors, or miners.

The annual profit of the company was 385 million yuan in 2017.In June, Ebang filed a listing application with the HKEx, in addition to submitting a prospectus for an Initial Public Offering.

Sina Finance reports that Ebang planned to go public on Oct. 16, however the company was ostensibly accused of illicitly using over 500 million yuan.

An investigation of a 524.9 million yuan transaction between investment and wealth management portal Yindou.com and Ebang, reportedly discovered that in 2017, Cui Hongwei, the wife of Yindou director Li Yonggang, transferred the funds to Ebang.

According to Sina Finance, Ebang received the funds from Yindou.com for money laundering, inflating sales revenue, or collecting a fictitious sales contract for the deposit, all in order to make their listing on HKEx go more smoothly.

Ebang reportedly explained the alleged loss of 144.9 million yuan as a regular business relationship between Yindou.com and Ebang for the purchase of cloud computing server equipment.

On Oct. 12, a request was reportedly submitted to the HKEx in order to prevent Ebang from listing on the exchange.

The claim subsequently put Ebang's listing application under investigation by the Listing Department, which is now supposedly reviewing relevant information in order to decide whether further action is needed.

At press time, Ebang has not responded to Cointelegraph's request for comment.