Shoe Company: 'CEO And COO Disappeared, Most Of The Company's Cash Missing'

This is an actual headline from a company press release, first alerted to us by the folks at FastFT: "CEO and COO disappeared, most of the company's cash missing."

In a statement, shoe company Ultrasonic said that its CFO, Chi Kwong Clifford Chan, has been unable to reach the company's CEO, Qingyong Wu, and COO, Minghong Wu, who apparently left their homes and are untraceable.

Chan also said that most of the company's cash funds have been transferred and are longer, "in the company's range of influence."

So basically, the money's gone.

Shares of Ultrasonic trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange were down as much as 76% on Tuesday.

Tuesday's announcement from the company also follows news on Friday that its COO, Minghong Wu, would take a six-month leave of absence for health reasons. That announcement said CEO Qinyong Wu would would assume the COO's responsibilities.

Now they're both gone.

And to add an even more bizarre twist to the story, in the same announcement that said Ultrasonic's COO would take a leave of absence, Chan, the company's CFO, said he would step down for family reasons on September 30.

So now we've got two missing executives, who appear to have taken all the company's money, and the top executive left remaining was on his way out the door.

Ultrasonic's market cap, according to Google Finance, is $91 million. Playing microcap Chinese companies listed in Frankfurt comes with, it appears, substantial risks.

Here's the intraday chart of Ultrasonic shares trading in Frankfurt.

According to its investor relations site, Ultrasonic is "China's Urban Footwear Company." Ultrasonic AG, which lists on the Frankfurt exchange, is a German corporate with a registered office in Cologne, Germany. One-hundred percent of this company is owned by China Ultrasonic Outdoorwear Holdings, which is based in Hong Kong.

Here's a schematic of the corporate structure, which seems less-than-totally clear.

(via FastFT)