Posted on 12/29/2004 9:29:17 PM PST by maui_hawaii
Chinese police have arrested the chairman of California-based electronics maker Apex Digital Inc., the U.S. Embassy confirmed Thursday, following reports that he was being investigated for financial fraud.
David Ji, who founded Apex in 1999, was detained in October in the southern city of Shenzhen, Chinese newspapers had reported earlier.
His detention followed an investigation by police in the western province of Sichuan - the home base of Chinese television maker Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., which says Apex owes it $467.5 million, the reports said.
"The U.S. Consulate-General in Chengdu, China, has confirmed the arrest of David Longfen Ji," a U.S. Embassy official said Thursday on customary condition of anonymity.
"Consular officials in Chengdu requested and were allowed consular access to this U.S. citizen," the official said. "We do not have permission ... to release further information."
Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province.
Apex, based in Ontario, Calif., did not immediately return calls Wednesday night.
The privately-held company is a leading importer of Chinese-made televisions and DVD players to the United States. Ji, who was born in China, founded the firm with a Taiwanese partner.
Changhong Electric said earlier this week it would post large losses in 2004 due in part to debt owed it by Apex, its main U.S. distributor.
Changhong is "trying through legal channels to reduce the economic losses," company spokesman Liu Haizhong said Thursday. He said he didn't know Ji's legal status.
Police in Sichuan's economic crimes investigation unit refused to comment on the case.
Interesting. I have an Apex DVD, not a very good player, and it can be very fussy, but it's easy to hack to make it multi-regional so I can play DVD's from UK.
No more $39.00 DVD players at Radio Shack. Guess he pi$$ed someone off.
Anyone have a Wal Mart supplier ping list???
He seemingly just forgot to pay taxes or something like that... oops.
Business in China, the great holy grail of trade. Till you end up in a reeducation camp as prisoner number 1,135,344,233.
HAHA....
I do have a couple apex players -not bad- and hope it all gets straightened out for mr. apex and his chinese supplier(s).
$39 Dollars!?! You overpaid!! lol
my local RS had a stack of some no-name Chinese-made DVD players for NINETEEN DOLLARS on black friday...sold out in a few hours ;)
My folks have one of those apex dvd players. I asked a salesman how good they were, he said middle of the road. They have been using it every day to play movies, for just over a year now and no problems.
It smells a little fishy if you ask me.
[sarcasm]Obviously this is a case of espionage, the Apex chief was trying to steal Chinese technology[/sarcasm]
I have a portable APEX DVD player and it works great. About a year ago, it stopped working and I had also lost the receipt. So I sent it to APEX and they fixed it anyway at no charge. I have no complaints.
That's good service by anyone by any measure -especially in this throw-away consumer electronics soceity.
I burn my own VCD's and such and find my APEX player is far less picky about playing with whatever on-sale media I burn on. If I can't play it elsewhere, it almost always plays on my APEX....go figure ;)
I burn my own VCD's and such and find my APEX player is far less picky about playing with whatever on-sale media I burn on. If I can't play it elsewhere, it almost always plays on my APEX....go figure ;)
sorry...dbl post :(
We have been buying APEX for years since they seem to play more formats and video CD's than others. Especially when purchased for $25!
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