HK Richard Li Faces Lawsuit On Stanford Claims-Report
HONG KONG -- Facing another blow to his badly battered image, Hong Kong tycoon Richard Li has been hit by a class action suit in New York after a company where he serves as an executive falsely claimed the Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCW) chairman was a Stanford University graduate, the South China Morning Post reported Saturday.
The lawsuit, filed by U.S. investors against Li and other executives of Rediff.com India Ltd. (REDF), claims his Stanford University "false credentials" formed part of deceptive statements used to lure investors to the Nasdaq-listed dot-com, the paper reported.
While details of the lawsuit couldn't be confirmed by Dow Jones Newswires, Rediff.com, in an earnings report released on its Web site, admitted that it faces a class-action securities case.
The lawsuit has been filed "against the company, three of its officers, one of its directors and several of the investment banking firms that served as underwriters of the company's initial public offering in the United States in June 2000."
Li is a director at Rediff.com and according to the Post, PCCW holds a 5% stake in the company.
While not referring to Li directly, Rediff.com said "the complaint alleges that the defendants made misleading statements in the prospectus for the offering and those statements caused injury to the plaintiff class."
Rediff said it considers the complaint without merit.
Officials at Cyberworks couldn't be reached for comment Saturday.
Last month, Li's lack of a Stanford degree was uncovered by the International Herald Tribune. At first, Li denied there were any official documents containing misleading information before eventually admitting that two company listing documents erroneously stated that he received a Stanford degree, though he left the university nine months shy of graduation.
The erroneous information also appeared in some promotional materials for CyberWorks, though they were removed once the controversy erupted.
Li said publicly at the time "I don't think this incident has affected my company's stock in any way, for there are no such mistakes in the official information related to Pacific Century CyberWorks."
Li, whose father is Hong Kong's richest man, the billionaire Li Ka-shing, has been under mounting pressure as his company struggles with the fallout from the burst of the Internet bubble. His stock has fallen more than 90% from its high, reached last February.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
URL for this Article:
interactive.wsj.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Printing, distribution, and use of this material is governed by your Subscription Agreement and copyright laws.
For information about subscribing, go to wsj.com
used with permission of wsj.com |
