Sino-Forest Corp said on Wednesday it is reviewing fraud charges leveled against it by the Ontario Securities Commission and considering what steps, if any, it ought to take in response to the allegations, Reuters reported. The embattled Chinese forestry company, whose stock imploded last year in the face of fraud allegations, said the regulator is seeking penalties of up to C$1 million for each alleged failure by the company to comply with Ontario securities law. The OSC, Canada's most powerful securities regulator, is also seeking to permanently halt trade in shares of Sino-Forest.

The corporate regulator is claiming success with its crackdown on the insolvency profession and says it will continue to be a key area of focus, The Australian reported. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission has broken new ground by issuing its first annual report into the insolvency industry, identifying and describing recent enforcement actions in the wake of being granted additional funding to increase surveillance.

Canada's largest securities regulator alleged Tuesday that Sino-Forest Corp. and certain former executives inflated timber purchases and sales, capping an 11-month investigation into the troubled forest-products company, The Wall Street Journal Deals & Deal Makers blog reported. The Ontario Securities Commission signaled last month it would file fraud allegations against the company, after issuing a so-called enforcement notice. A spokesman for Sino-Forest, which conducts most of its business in China, declined to comment.

India's mounting economic and political woes are prompting market players to raise the specter of a Greek-style crisis in Asia's third largest economy, Reuters reported on an International Financing Review story. This is not simply idle speculation. Last Friday, the rupee crashed to an all-time low against the dollar of 54.9 and it was stuck most of Tuesday at the psychologically significant Rs55/USD level, where the currency is seen as having no obvious technical support. And the implications of a rupee collapse would be immense.

Indian banks Monday discussed proposed changes to the corporate debt restructuring mechanism to minimize their losses and ensure that founders of stressed companies have skin in the game, the Deal Journal India blog reported. The mechanism is a formal process aimed at achieving an agreement between a stressed company’s lenders to restructure its debt. The proposals ranged from asking founders to issue personal guarantees and pledging entire holdings to requiring stressed companies to give creditors seats on their boards, said R.K. Dubey, executive director at Central Bank of India. Mr.

The Chinese official was adamant the city of Weifang would keep its rayon factory open, noting that local authorities had just stepped in to help the plant's owner repay $60 million in commercial paper, Reuters reported. The bailout averted what would have been China's first ever bond default and was good news for domestic bond investors, who were reassured that in China even mid-sized state-owned firms can count on "too-big-to-fail" treatment.

A group of Elpida Memory bondholders opposes Micron Technology's offer to buy the bankrupt Japanese chipmaker and has reached out to South Korea's SK hynix and U.S.-based GlobalFoundries to ready a potential alternative plan, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said, Reuters reported. SK hynix, which had dropped out during the second and final round of bidding for Elpida, is interested in the memory chipmaker's Taipei operations, while GlobalFoundries is interested in its Hiroshima operations, said the source, who asked not to be identified.

When growth in China's economy slows, government leaders typically call on state-owned banks to make loans to rev up activity. But that tactic may not work this time, The Wall Street Journal reported. Bank lending plunged in April, according to the People's Bank of China, and has remained weak in May, bankers and borrowers said. The decline owes to companies being wary about borrowing when demand is uncertain and profits are evaporating.

A large Russian investment in a Waimate dairy processor has failed with receivers appointed to New Zealand Dairies, Stuff.co.nz reported. Plans to sell the $100 million Waimate dairy factory did not come off leading to the appointment of Colin Gower and Stephen Tubbs of BDO yesterday as receivers. Last month Christchurch company director Richie Smith, who advises the Russian owners, said the factory would keep processing milk as usual.

The Chinese economy is in a lot more trouble than headline GDP figures have indicated until now, the Financial Times reported. Less closely watched economic data released in recent days, including figures for electricity, rail cargo and bank loans, have all shown a steep drop in activity that appears to have caught policymakers by surprise. China’s GDP statistics are only released every three months and in the first quarter of this year they appeared to show a continuation of the gradual decline that has been under way for the past year.