JD.com accuses wealth manager Noah of ensnaring it in years of ‘malicious lawsuits’ as fraud case moves to Shanghai court

E-commerce giant JD.com and Noah Holdings, one of China’s largest wealth management firms, have crossed swords in public over a fraud case, shedding light on the sometimes murky world of contractual disputes in the country.

JD.com accused Shanghai-based Noah and its subsidiary Gopher Asset Management of entangling it in “four years of malicious lawsuits” that have tarnished its reputation and led to huge losses, according to a statement published by the Beijing-based firm on its official account on microblogging service Weibo earlier this week.

The statement came days after the Shanghai Financial Court began a trial involving defendants including JD Century Trade Holdings, a JD.com unit, in a case brought by Gopher Asset Management four years ago over a contractual dispute.

The trial is linked to a years-long supply chain financing fraud fabricated by Camsing International, which used falsified contracts to secure funds amounting to 3.4 billion yuan (US$480 million) from Gopher Asset Management.

Gopher has claimed that the underlying assets are backed by accounts receivables from the JD.com unit. However, JD.com has stated that all the documents were fabricated and JD.com was not involved in the transactions under dispute.

Camsing founder Ching Lo was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment last year after being convicted of contract fraud and bribery.