(Ecns.cn)—Lin Chunping, a businessman from Wenzhou, the economic powerhouse of East China's Zhejiang Province, apologized to the public on Tuesday for hyping his purchase of a U.S. bank, according to the People's Daily earlier today.
Lin insisted that his plan to buy overseas banks would proceed despite the doubts surrounding the authenticity of his story.
Earlier this month, Lin made a high-profile announcement that he was stepping into the financial industry by buying the "85-year-old Atlantic Bank of America in Delaware" for $60 million.
Yet the only "bank" of that name was later discovered to no longer exist, having gone bankrupt in March of 1984.
To make his story more convincing, Lin set up a new firm called the "USA New HSBC Federation Consortium Inc" for the exclusive use of overseas mergers and acquisitions, yet he is now being sued by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC).
"Given the previous awkward experience, future mergers and deals won't be publicized ahead of time, but I will reveal details about the concluded deals afterwards," Lin told reporters yesterday at a press conference.
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