Gu Chujun, ex-chairman of the Guangdong Kelon Electrical Holdings Co. Ltd, and eight other former senior executives of the company went on trial Tuesday for various charges.

 

Gu is accused of making false financial reports and embezzlement and is being tried by the Intermediate People's Court of Foshan in south China's Guangdong Province.

 

Gu was detained in July 2005 and fined 300,000 yuan (37,500 dollars) by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) in early July this year after the CSRC found that he had manipulated Kelon's financial statement, overstating profits by 387 million yuan from 2002 to 2004.

 

The commission said Kelon, which was listed in both Shenzhen and Hong Kong, also overstated revenues by 1.22 billion yuan over the same period.

 

CSRC started investigating Kelon in May 2005, after a 60-million-yuan loss was reported in its 2004 annual report.

 

The company was fined 600,000 yuan in early July for overstating its profits.

 

Eight other former executives of the company were also fined sums ranging from 100,000 to 200,000 yuan.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 8, 2006)