2 Executives Quit Alibaba.com After Fraud Inquiry

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: NYTimes

Alibaba.com, a fast-growing Chinese electronic commerce site that is partly owned by Yahoo, said Monday that its chief executive and chief operating officer had resigned after an internal investigation into fraud at the company.

In a statement released late Monday, Alibaba said that its longtime chief executive, David Wei, and the chief operating officer, Elvis Lee, had not been involved in the fraud but that they had resigned after accepting responsibility for failing to stop it.

The company said the fraud had been small and would not affect its financial performance. But the announcement stunned the technology community in China because Mr. Wei was one of the country’s most prominent chief executives and Alibaba.com was one of the most successful Chinese Internet start-ups.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/business/global/22alibaba.html?_r=1&smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto

[KurtNYC]

1. does anyone know if we have the equivalent of these Chinese sourcing sites?

GlobalSources, Alibaba, etc. only allow Chinese companies to list. Is there an American one?

[On the Road]

3. Alibaba is Not Only for China

Other countries list on it too, I believe the US is included. But the majority of companies are Chinese firms marketing in America. Very few people in the US know about the site, but it's very well known in China.

I did some inquiries a couple of years ago on some flat screen TVs. One of the providers tried what appeared to be a scam. The company was in Italy and I didn't fall for it.

Unless some of the executives were complicit, resigning seems like and overreaction. I've had scam attempts on Craigslist, too, but I didn't blame the site.

[3waygeek]

2. A good start....

I'd expect another 38 resignations soon.