Internet entrepreneur outed for defaulting on debts
The founder of Chinese internet company LeEco — a one-time technology success that’s now facing a severe cash crunch — has been placed on a national list of debt defaulters after failing to comply with a court order.
Information on Jia Yueting, including his name and ID number, were disclosed on the defaulter website on Monday after he failed to comply with a verdict by Beijing No 3 Intermediate People’s Court.
Jia had been ordered to pay Ping An Securities more than 470 million yuan ($71 million), including a fine for breaking a contract.
He was also ordered to pay notary and legal fees. So far, he has not paid up, the court said.
The Supreme People’s Court set up the debt defaulter website in 2013, aiming to speed up compliance with verdicts through a blacklist and make court work more transparent.
On the website, defaulters’ names, ID numbers and information about their violations are open to the public. Those listed face restrictions such as bans on the purchase of tickets for airline flights or highspeed trains, as well as highend luxuries online.
Statistics released by the top court in November showed that the information of 8.87 million people who did not comply with court rulings had been disclosed, and 3.4 million defaulters had been barred from buying high-speed train tickets or first-class cabins on regular trains.
In addition, more than 170,000 people have been barred from being company representatives or executives, the top court said.
Jia had publicly admitted that the company’s expansion efforts had gone too far and the troubled entrepreneur was bombarded with questions and doubts about his business plan and his ability to reinvigorate LeEco.
The 21st Century Business Herald reported that the company recorded 9.73 billion yuan in losses in the first three quarters of 2016 on revenues of around 40 billion yuan.
Jia resigned from all of his positions at the listed company due to its financial crisis and unpaid debts. Courts in some regions, including Beijing and Shanghai, have frozen his shares in the company.