A ‘Hustle’ of big dimensions

“There are no good guys in this story, including me,” warns Philadelphia-area hedge fund operator and financial activist Dan David at the start of “The China Hustle,” writer-director Jed Rothstein’s accessible, persuasive, often amusing look at how investments in dubious Chinese companies gave way to crisis-level losses for average American stockholders in the wake of the 2008 financial disaster — and beyond — and made some U.S. bankers and lawyers and Chinese executives a bundle.

David is our de facto guide here in telling this story of purported U.S.China collusion in selling bad deals via the formation of reverse mergers: in this case, the acquisition of stillpublic, U.S. shell companies by private Chinese companies.

The result was an array of seriously overvalued corporations that legally bypassed the kind of scrutiny — on both sides of the Pacific — that might have quickly shut down the whole shady enterprise.

Although big U.S. investment firms such as Roth Capital Partners and Rodman & Renshaw (both profiled here) cozied up to these China-centric opportunities, “little” guys like David eventually took notice and began short-selling the stocks of these reversemergered entities in an attempt to expose their duplicity.

The film makes a sound case for greater regulation of financial systems. It also suggests that, under our present administration, Americans will likely see the reverse.

“The China Hustle.” Rated: R, for some language. Running time: 1 hour, 24 minutes. Playing: Landmark Nuart Theatre, West L.A.; also on VOD.