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31

How a Smooth Talker Convinced Bankers to Invest $32 Million, Then Vanished

By Tony Seruga

The American Club's Country Club in the Tai Tam area.

The American Club’s Country Club in the Tai Tam area.

Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg

Citi, Morgan Stanley bankers burned by GMF cash-advance firm
Directors unreachable; police probe possible misappropriation

Inside Hong Kong’s posh American Club, few worked a room quite like Avery Stone.

Over steak dinners and cigars, Stone charmed a Who’s Who of financiers into investing millions in his fledgling business. Then, earlier this year, everything unraveled–and he vanished.

Left behind are the questions, including the big one: How did Stone and his partners at Global Merchant Funding Ltd. apparently dupe Hong Kong’s princes of finance into believing their business was on solid-footing? Accountants are still trying to piece together the answers…

How a Smooth Talker Convinced Bankers to Invest $32 Million, Then Vanished

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