Heard of China’s Fake Rolexes? Now There’s a Fake Goldman Sachs
2015-08-27 02:25:59.801 GMT
By Shai Oster
(Bloomberg) -- China has been accused of pirating movies,
handbags, Rolexes -- even cars. Add Goldman Sachs to the list.
Goldman Sachs (Shenzhen) Financial Leasing Co. has been
operating in the city just across the border from Hong Kong
using a nearly identical English and Chinese name as the New
York-based financial institution, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. It
claims on its website to be one of the city’s largest financial
leasing firms.
A receptionist answering the phone at the Shenzhen company
who declined to give her name said it’s not affiliated with the
U.S. bank and wouldn’t offer how it got its name, emphasizing it
includes Shenzhen. It’s the first time she’s been asked the
question, she said.
A filing with the Shenzhen government indicates the company
has been operating since May 2013. The company uses the same
Chinese characters, gao sheng, as the real Goldman Sachs, and
its English font is evocative of the U.S. bank’s.
Connie Ling, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Goldman
Sachs, confirmed there are no ties between the U.S. investment
bank and the Shenzhen company and said Goldman is looking into
the matter.
It’s not the only bank facing brazen name-borrowing. In a
more extreme example, a 39-year-old man in eastern China’s
Shandong province was arrested earlier in August after setting
up a fake branch of China Construction Bank, including card
readers, teller counters and signs, according to the Xinhua news
agency.
Shenzhen’s Goldman Sachs came to light through a letter
sent by a U.S. casino workers union to Chinese officials. The
International Union of Operating Engineers said it sent a letter
to Wang Qishan, head of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central
Commission for Discipline Inspection, which is spearheading the
biggest anti-corruption crackdown in decades.
Money Laundering
The letter called on China’s government to investigate
Goldman Sachs (Shenzhen), which it said is a financial services
company linked to a group of gambling companies controlled by
the family of Cheung Chi-tai. Prosecutors in at least two other
court cases alleged he has ties to Chinese organized crime
gangs, known as triads. Cheung is awaiting trial and his next
court appearance is scheduled for September.
Cheung is a prominent figure in Macau junkets, which
facilitate loans to Chinese high rollers in the only Chinese
territory where gambling is legal. Casino revenue has fallen as
China’s anti-corruption drive has affected junkets.
“Macau’s current gambling regulatory structure we believe
is ill-equipped to monitor and adequately regulate a junket’s
outside partnerships and financing arrangements,” Jeffrey
Fiedler, the U.S. union representative, said in the Aug. 25
letter.
Possible Ties
The union has been trying to pressure Chinese and U.S.
regulators to investigate Macau, where American casinos such as
Las Vegas Sands Corp. have big operations, for possible ties to
organized crime and money laundering.
Three phone calls to the office of the CCDI in Beijing went
unanswered. An operator with CCDI’s hotline for public reporting
said she’s not familiar with the case.
The company’s office is located in a relatively new
gleaming high-rise office park along a tree-lined street on the
western fringe of Shenzhen, a former fishing village turned
global manufacturing powerhouse.
Gold Control
The union said the Shenzhen company is controlled by a Hong
Kong-based gold trader unaffiliated with the investment bank.
Its connection to Cheung is through relatives, the letter said.
The Shenzhen Goldman Sachs’s website was inaccessible as of
Wednesday, though it could be viewed in screen grabs captured by
the union.
“There have been quite a few cases where Chinese
individuals or organizations have registered in China the
trademark of an existing and established overseas brand,” Paul
Haswell, a Hong Kong-based partner at law firm Pinsent Masons,
said in an e-mail.
If history is any guide, Goldman doesn’t have much chance
of changing its Shenzhen doppelganger. Basketball legend Michael
Jordan lost a case against a Chinese sportswear company that
used the Chinese version of his name.
Apple Inc. paid $60 million to settle a trademark dispute
with a Chinese company that had applied to block the sale of
iPad computer tablets in 2012.
“It’s notoriously difficult for an overseas claimant to
persuade the Chinese courts that there has been trademark
infringement,” said Haswell. “There’s still a practice of
whoever registers first wins.”
For Related News and Information:
Apple Pays $60 Million to End China IPad Fight With Proview
Michael Jordan’s Trademark Loss In China Shows Need to Protect
Brands
Kering’s Gucci Wins Order Barring Alibaba Merchants’ Fake Goods
Top Stories:TOP<GO>
--With assistance from Keith Zhai in Beijing.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Shai Oster in Hong Kong at +852-2977-4615 or
soster@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Peter Elstrom at +81-3-3201-3532 or
pelstrom@bloomberg.net
Sheridan Prasso, Stephanie Wong
2015-08-27 02:25:59.801 GMT
By Shai Oster
(Bloomberg) -- China has been accused of pirating movies,
handbags, Rolexes -- even cars. Add Goldman Sachs to the list.
Goldman Sachs (Shenzhen) Financial Leasing Co. has been
operating in the city just across the border from Hong Kong
using a nearly identical English and Chinese name as the New
York-based financial institution, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. It
claims on its website to be one of the city’s largest financial
leasing firms.
A receptionist answering the phone at the Shenzhen company
who declined to give her name said it’s not affiliated with the
U.S. bank and wouldn’t offer how it got its name, emphasizing it
includes Shenzhen. It’s the first time she’s been asked the
question, she said.
A filing with the Shenzhen government indicates the company
has been operating since May 2013. The company uses the same
Chinese characters, gao sheng, as the real Goldman Sachs, and
its English font is evocative of the U.S. bank’s.
Connie Ling, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Goldman
Sachs, confirmed there are no ties between the U.S. investment
bank and the Shenzhen company and said Goldman is looking into
the matter.
It’s not the only bank facing brazen name-borrowing. In a
more extreme example, a 39-year-old man in eastern China’s
Shandong province was arrested earlier in August after setting
up a fake branch of China Construction Bank, including card
readers, teller counters and signs, according to the Xinhua news
agency.
Shenzhen’s Goldman Sachs came to light through a letter
sent by a U.S. casino workers union to Chinese officials. The
International Union of Operating Engineers said it sent a letter
to Wang Qishan, head of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central
Commission for Discipline Inspection, which is spearheading the
biggest anti-corruption crackdown in decades.
Money Laundering
The letter called on China’s government to investigate
Goldman Sachs (Shenzhen), which it said is a financial services
company linked to a group of gambling companies controlled by
the family of Cheung Chi-tai. Prosecutors in at least two other
court cases alleged he has ties to Chinese organized crime
gangs, known as triads. Cheung is awaiting trial and his next
court appearance is scheduled for September.
Cheung is a prominent figure in Macau junkets, which
facilitate loans to Chinese high rollers in the only Chinese
territory where gambling is legal. Casino revenue has fallen as
China’s anti-corruption drive has affected junkets.
“Macau’s current gambling regulatory structure we believe
is ill-equipped to monitor and adequately regulate a junket’s
outside partnerships and financing arrangements,” Jeffrey
Fiedler, the U.S. union representative, said in the Aug. 25
letter.
Possible Ties
The union has been trying to pressure Chinese and U.S.
regulators to investigate Macau, where American casinos such as
Las Vegas Sands Corp. have big operations, for possible ties to
organized crime and money laundering.
Three phone calls to the office of the CCDI in Beijing went
unanswered. An operator with CCDI’s hotline for public reporting
said she’s not familiar with the case.
The company’s office is located in a relatively new
gleaming high-rise office park along a tree-lined street on the
western fringe of Shenzhen, a former fishing village turned
global manufacturing powerhouse.
Gold Control
The union said the Shenzhen company is controlled by a Hong
Kong-based gold trader unaffiliated with the investment bank.
Its connection to Cheung is through relatives, the letter said.
The Shenzhen Goldman Sachs’s website was inaccessible as of
Wednesday, though it could be viewed in screen grabs captured by
the union.
“There have been quite a few cases where Chinese
individuals or organizations have registered in China the
trademark of an existing and established overseas brand,” Paul
Haswell, a Hong Kong-based partner at law firm Pinsent Masons,
said in an e-mail.
If history is any guide, Goldman doesn’t have much chance
of changing its Shenzhen doppelganger. Basketball legend Michael
Jordan lost a case against a Chinese sportswear company that
used the Chinese version of his name.
Apple Inc. paid $60 million to settle a trademark dispute
with a Chinese company that had applied to block the sale of
iPad computer tablets in 2012.
“It’s notoriously difficult for an overseas claimant to
persuade the Chinese courts that there has been trademark
infringement,” said Haswell. “There’s still a practice of
whoever registers first wins.”
For Related News and Information:
Apple Pays $60 Million to End China IPad Fight With Proview
Michael Jordan’s Trademark Loss In China Shows Need to Protect
Brands
Kering’s Gucci Wins Order Barring Alibaba Merchants’ Fake Goods
Top Stories:TOP<GO>
--With assistance from Keith Zhai in Beijing.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Shai Oster in Hong Kong at +852-2977-4615 or
soster@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Peter Elstrom at +81-3-3201-3532 or
pelstrom@bloomberg.net
Sheridan Prasso, Stephanie Wong