CEFC China Energy

CEFC China Energy (Chinese: 中国华信能源) was a Chinese conglomerate. The company was among the 10 largest private companies in China in 2014. In 2017, the company was listed as 222 on the Fortune Global 500. In March 2020, the company—along with its subsidiaries CEFC Shanghai International and CEFC Hainan International—was declared bankrupt. The company used a complex web of affiliated companies to facilitate fake deals, inflate trade figures, and obtain bank loans to fuel its aggressive expansion.

In 2014, the company generated revenue mainly from oil and gas (60%) and financial services (25%). It also operated in a wide range of other sectors like transport infrastructure, forestry, asset management, hotel management, warehousing services, real estate development and logistics services. A large portion of CEFC's assets were concentrated in overseas markets.

The controlling shareholder of CEFC was Shanghai Energy Fund Investment Ltd (SEFI), which was registered under Ye Jianming, the chairman of CEFC. Fortune described Ye as "China’s Newest Oil Baron" in its 40 Under 40 of 2016 while noting his close connections to the Chinese government.

In the autumn of 2015, Hunter Biden became acquainted with Ye. Ye and Biden worked together for about 18 months, with Biden providing his legal and financial experience to help CEFC establish joint ventures in the United States, such as Hudson West; Biden received fees in the amount of approximately $5 million for his services to CEFC. Biden also worked with CEFC on foreign deals, e.g. State Energy HK in Hong Kong.

In January 2017, Czech President Miloš Zeman appointed Ye as his economic adviser, however, CEFC's many investments in the Czech Republic in the past years were soon noticed by Czech media and led to speculation about whether CEFC was operated at arm's length by the Chinese government. Reuters reported that CEFC had a rare contract to store part of China's strategic oil reserve and "hired a number of former top officials from state-owned energy companies according to CEFC officials... It also [had] layers of Communist Party committees across its subsidiaries – more than at many private Chinese companies."

In March 2018, Ye was detained in China for questioning on suspicion of economic crimes. Reuters and South China Morning Post reported that Shanghai Guosheng Group [zh], a portfolio and investment entity that is a Shanghai municipal government agency, had taken control of CEFC China Energy. On March 2, 2018, CEFC announced that Ye had stepped down as chairman and that state-controlled CITIC Group had acquired 49% of CEFC Shanghai, a subsidiary of CEFC China Energy. (CEFC Shanghai owned CEFC Europe.) In April 2018, CEFC laid off 15,000 employees, who had not been paid for two months. Later in March 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice arrested and later convicted high-level CEFC representative Patrick Ho in New York City on charges of bribery; Hunter Biden's law firm was paid $1 million to provide for Ho's legal defense.

On the 16 December 2008, Shanghai CEFC Oil Group Co. Ltd. was established by Ye Ling  [叶铃], Zheng Jianding [郑坚定] and Su Weizhong. (Refer to pages 1-1-43 & 1-1-44 of Shanghai Stock Exchange Filing.)

This was a precursor to CEFC China's official registration in China. In January 2010, Shanghai CEFC Oil Group Co. Ltd. was later rebranded as Shanghai CEFC International Group Co. Ltd. (hereafter referred to as "Shanghai CEFC"). In November 2009, China CEFC formed another subsidiary, Beijing CEFC Oil Group Co. Ltd., which was later renamed Beijing CEFC International Holdings Group Co. Ltd. and eventually Beijing CEFC International Energy Co. Ltd. (hereafter referred to as "Beijing CEFC").