| Time | Text |
|---|---|
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Cayman Islands Conundrum
00:02:15
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| Some 95% of the Chinese companies that are traded on the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange. | |
| What about if the American people understood that they don't own one share of these Chinese companies? | |
| They're all registered in the Cayman Islands. | |
| A front company is established. | |
| It has a contract that is supposedly infused with the value of Alibaba, for example. | |
| But do we own actual shares of Alibaba, which many Americans do? | |
| Millions, tens of millions do. | |
| No. Or they think they do. | |
| They think they own shares, but they own shares of a contract of a front company set up in the Cayman Islands that's supposed to substitute for real shares. | |
| Now, why did that happen? | |
| Because the Chinese came to the regulators in the United States and they said, it's not okay for Americans to hold any peace, any real ownership in our companies. | |
| So we have to invent this vehicle, this one-off, if you will, this separator here in VIEs. | |
| Where's the reciprocity in that? | |
| When we own, I mean, when the Chinese own shares of an American company, they own the shares. | |
| We own some facsimile of shares. | |
| So, it is remarkable to me that the SEC chairmen, in long succession over the past decades, ... have lived with this thing ever since it was invented. | |
| I can't tell you the year that it was invented, but it is an insidious device. | |
| And I hope that the incoming SEC chairman, Paul Atkins, who I think is sensitive to these issues, is going to put an end to this kind of thing. | |
| This isn't something where you need enhanced disclosure to learn more about the VIEs. | |
| The VIEs themselves are a scandal and need to be terminated immediately. | |