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BEIJING, April 24 (TMTPOST) —— The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has decided to impose administrative punishment and a market ban on Amethyst Storage, Zeda Yisheng, and relevant responsible personnel last Friday.

According to previous announcements, the two companies and the relevant directors and supervisors will be fined about 240 million yuan ($34.8 million). Intermediaries will also bear the economic losses of all qualified investors.

Meanwhile, the CSRC said it will transfer those suspected of criminal offenses to the public security authorities promptly in accordance with the law. In addition, the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) will also order ZedaYiSheng and Amethyst Storage to be delisted for serious violations of the law.

Ametectic Storage and Zeda Yisheng were once star stocks in the SSE STAR Market. Sponsored by China Securities and Dongxing Securities respectively, they were listed in February 2020 and April 2020, respectively. The IPO intermediaries of the former also include Pan-China Certified Public Accountants LLP and Beijing Kangda Law Firm, while the latter include RSM China, Grant Thornton and GFE Law Office.

The CSRC said that as the first batch of fraudulent issuance cases in the SSE STAR Market, the delisting of two companies will have an impact on the market. Therefore, the CSRC will have zero tolerance of such fraudulent issuance cases. In addition to penalize the issuer, relevant controlling shareholders, and actual controllers, the CSRC will also carry out an investigation into the intermediaries involved in this case. In the case of Zeda Yisheng, intermediaries such as Dongxing Securities have been indicted, while in the case of Amethyst Storage, the intermediary has not been charged, but CSRC has started relevant investigations.

In addition to holding wrongdoers accountable, it is also important to protect the legitimate rights and interests of investors. In the Amethyst storage case，China Securities and other intermediaries will jointly set up a special fund for advance compensation of 1 billion yuan ($145 million), which is the fourth advance compensation in the A-share market after Joyvio Agriculture Development, Hirisun, and Dandong XinTai Electric. In the case of Zeda Yisheng, an ordinary representative action has been started and is expected to be converted into a special representative action.

Liu Siyuan, a partner of Beijing Jingtian & Gongcheng law firm, said that the advance compensation can make up for investors" losses to a larger extent, covering all investors. "Many investors would give up suing on their own for small sums. Even if they sue on their own, in the new judicial interpretation of false statements, as long as they are not intentionally involved in the fraud, securities firms that have the ability to pay will generally bear proportional joint and several liabilities. So once the issuer rans out of money, securities firms need to bear proportional joint and several liabilities, meaning that investors are unlikely to get a full compensation,” said Liu.