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Chinese Hedge Fund Manager Denies She Was Arrested, Was Merely "Meditating"

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Last week, China decided that enough was enough with the stock selling. 

Two months of (virtually) uninterrupted plunge protection amounting to some CNY1.5 trillion along with a series of directives and threats had failed to stop the market’s harrowing descent and so, perhaps fearing that its rather aggressive posturing wasn’t being taken seriously, Beijing started arresting people. 

As documented exhaustively here, the crackdown on “subversives” led to more than two hundred arrests and forced confessions. There was Xu Gang, the CITIC executive. And CSRC official Liu Shufan. And let’s not forget poor Wang Xiaolu, the Caijing reporter who, clearly under duress, made the following public confession after suggesting in a story that China’s plunge protection team might be considering an exit from the market (which is of course true): “I shouldn’t have released a report with a major negative impact on the market at such a sensitive time. I shouldn’t do that just to catch attention which has caused the country and its investors such a big loss. I regret . . . [it and am] willing to confess my crime.”

The sweeping accusations so frightened one fund manager that, after being summoned by the authorities, he told a friend who works at CSRC the following: “If I don't come back, look after my wife.”

One high profile “summons” involved Li Yifei, chairwoman of Man Group’s China arm. Here’s what we said late last month: 

Meanwhile, China has also brought in Li Yifei, chairwoman of Man Group’s China arm. From Bloomberg

 

Chinese authorities took Li Yifei, chairwoman of Man Group Plc’s China unit, into custody to assist with a police probe into market volatility, according to a person familiar with the matter.

 

Li assisting with the investigation doesn’t mean she is facing charges or has done anything wrong. She has led Man Group in China since November 2011, according to her profile on LinkedIn. The person asked not to be identified because the probe isn’t public.

 

We suspect maybe this was the mistake: 

 

In an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Stephen Engle in November, Li said investors and regulators in China were beginning to understand hedge funds.

 

"The Chinese investors and regulators are beginning to understand that actually hedge fund is about hedging."

 

Yes, "actually hedge fund is about hedging," which, as Citadel learned earlier this month, would "actually" be fine as long as by "hedging" Li means "buying" or any other activity which leads equities higher. Always higher. Never, ever lower.

Needless to say, if one is lucky enough to get "sent for" by Chinese securities regulators and escape without a lenghty prison sentence (or worse), the last thing you'd want to do is throw the rabid media a bone just as the entire world is transfixed with China's frantic, ad hoc scramble to stop the bleeding on the SHCOMP. Consider that, and then consider the following from Reuters, who reports that Li, who is now free, was shocked - shocked - to learn that anyone thought she had been detained when in fact, she was simply on vacation, meditating.

The China head of hedge fund Man Group said on Monday that she had not been taken into custody by Chinese authorities, denying media reports that said she had been assisting a police investigation into market volatility.

 

 

Li told Reuters that she had been attending industry meetings and had then taken a five-to-six-day trip to meditate.

 

"I wasn't investigated," Li told Reuters by telephone, adding she was "shocked" by the media reports.

 

Li also posted on her Weibo account on Sunday, saying that she enjoyed China's military parade, held last Thursday, and long weekend, and that the weather in Beijing had been very nice recently.

While we'll never know for sure where Li actually was, who she was actually talking to, and what exactly it was they were talking about, it's probably safe to say that any "hedging" she does going forward will reflect a generally bullish bias, at least as it relates to Chinese equities, lest she should find herself back on "vacation", only next time it will be longer, with plenty more time to "meditate" and getting out of it won't be as simple as explaining how nice the weather is in Beijing and how impressive Xi's missles are.

 

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Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:02 | 6522896 thunderchief
thunderchief's picture

On a walnut Billy club.

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:14 | 6522920 1000yrdstare
1000yrdstare's picture

They have a cure for headaches too!!!

http://toplok.co.uk/liveleak-execution

 

 

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:22 | 6522955 TruxtonSpangler
TruxtonSpangler's picture

Meditating on how nice it is to breathing

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:23 | 6522956 fudge
fudge's picture

Look at fear in her eyes, LoL, I can smell that fear from here.

 

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:18 | 6522911 Keltner Channel Surf
Keltner Channel Surf's picture

Cultural differences can be interesting, if my high school classmates would have tried that excuse after drinking 9 Genesee Cream Ales, while calling from the local police station, I'm thinking their parents might have been a little suspicious ...

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:20 | 6522912 Xibalba
Xibalba's picture

If that won't work...throw 'em off a roof, or better yet...a flaming car...or a NAILGUN!  Oh yesyesyesyesyes....a NAILGUN!  Just like they do in Colorado and NYC

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:11 | 6522916 RawPawg
RawPawg's picture
Hedge Fund Manager on Vaca? During these perilous time? Now,that's a crime.
Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:16 | 6522922 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

I for one believe her when she says she was meditating, I'm sure the Chinese authorities gave her a lot to think about.

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:38 | 6523011 messymerry
messymerry's picture

Hear hear,,,  The ChiCom party can be very persuasive and they have a long history of violence against the Chinese people.  I would certainly be scared of them.  This goes all the way back to the imperial dynasties when it was said you would die if you looked upon the face of a royal 

;-D

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 15:06 | 6523432 fockewulf190
fockewulf190's picture

Now-a-days your bussed off to an execution camp, neck shot, organs are harvested, and your family is billed for the bullet.

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:23 | 6522927 JustObserving
JustObserving's picture

If you provide any information damaging to the state though it may be true, you must be a traitor. Besides if you meditate correctly, there is no prison, only the bliss of pure being and Chinese authorities torturing you

Truth is treason in an empire of lies

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:16 | 6522928 roisaber
roisaber's picture

What a uniquely oriental excuse.

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:24 | 6522961 Jason T
Jason T's picture

cool movie scene.  5 to 6 days to meditate sounds like good idea.  

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:29 | 6522977 NotApplicable
Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:31 | 6522984 henry chucho
henry chucho's picture

Li's "meditation" session ended when the jumper cables from the 12 volt Eveready car battery clamped onto her nipples finally ran out of juice..

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:43 | 6523032 where_is the_nuke
where_is the_nuke's picture

Fuck that bitch.

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:46 | 6523042 Hongcha
Hongcha's picture

An underrated film.  I am hard pressed to think of a better performance by either of them.

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:53 | 6523058 Jugdish
Jugdish's picture

she ain't a freak wit it.

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 13:58 | 6523077 Infinite QE
Infinite QE's picture

I have to come clean. She was meditating with me the whole time.

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 14:08 | 6523128 Seasmoke
Seasmoke's picture

Jail is the new spiritual retreat.

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 14:49 | 6523317 Winston Smith 2009
Winston Smith 2009's picture

"Li told Reuters that she had been attending industry meetings and had then taken a five-to-six-day trip to meditate."

"Meditate" being the English translation of the Chinese code word for "People's Re-education Center."

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 14:54 | 6523348 crazybob369
crazybob369's picture

So, here is a fairly attractive, talented, and probably very intelligent woman who should be the poster child for PRC PR on all that's right with the "new" China, and instead they send her on a "meditation" vacation and make her the poster child for everything that is still wrong with China. Idiots!!!

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 16:44 | 6523765 GoldSilverBitcoinBug
GoldSilverBitcoinBug's picture

More on Li yeifi pedigree:

https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/about-us/people/yifei-li/

 

Maybe just a crackdown on Western /Jewish kabbal in China.

Now you understand where her career came from...

 

 

Tue, 09/08/2015 - 20:50 | 6524732 reader2010
reader2010's picture

The 5th Column should be physically eliminated.

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