Courtesy of Pam Martens
Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA)
Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA) knows a thing or two about accounting and law. He has a law degree from Harvard, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. He has previously worked as a CPA and Certified Tax Law Specialist.
Sherman chairs the House Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets. At a Tuesday hearing on China’s myriad forms of market abuses, he made it crystal clear that investors are being hoodwinked when it comes to buying Chinese stocks.
In his opening statement for the hearing, Sherman said this:
“We see that China is able to pressure index funds to include Chinese companies but it’s not Chinese companies that are in the index funds. An index fund may choose to put the thousand biggest companies in the world in the index. But you can’t buy Alibaba. You buy Alibaba of the Cayman Islands.
“Now Alibaba is one of the biggest companies in the world, but Alibaba Cayman Islands – the Cayman Islands isn’t even one of the biggest islands in the world. You’re investing in a shell company that invests in another shell company that has a contractual relationship with Alibaba. Does that belong in an index?
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