A Chinese company says a truck with 4 years of financial documents was stolen, and there are no suspects
In a Monday release to the Hong Kong stock exchange, China Animal Healthcare - a mainland-based company that manufactures and sells drugs for animals - said that a truck loaded with four years worth of original financial documents was stolen.
This could be terrible for the accuracy of their Q4 earnings! Think about it!
This is a pretty wild story, even for China, where citizens are used to living with corruption at all levels of society, and especially in business.
The truck in question was on its way to headquarters in Beijing, according to the release, and what should have been a simple three to four hour drive turned into a disaster when the truck was taken while its driver was on a lunch break.
Luckily the company moved fast, and appointed an executive director to investigate the incident.
From the release [note that this is translated and the emphasis is ours]:
Immediately after the Incident took place, the Group made a report to the local public security bureau and sent staff to search for the Truck in the direction the Truck had gone according to the road monitoring system of the local public security bureau. Given the gravity of the Incident, the Group convened a meeting on 5 December 2015 with the driver of the Truck and other relevant personnel of the Group to inquire further into the Incident, as well as set up a special investigation group (the "SIG") accountable to the Board which is headed by Mr. Li Jun, an executive Director, to (i) investigate into the Incident, (ii) maintain close contact with the local public security bureau to search for the Truck, and (iii) confirm the list of Lost Documents and follow up on this matter.
Based on the findings of the investigation by the SIG, no suspicious person has been identified in the Incident. According to the local public security bureau, thefts such as the Incident are common occurrence in the Qingyuan District.
It is unfortunate that this kind of crime is so pervasive and so often goes unsolved. As it stands now, the truck has been found but the documents are still at large.
The company said the odds of finding them are "not high" too, which is sad.