(Yicai) May 9 -- Chinese e-commerce giant JD.Com is not liable to pay compensation to leading wealth manager Noah Holdings Group in a CNY30 billion (USD4.2 billion) fraud case involving Camsing International Holding, a court has ruled.

The Shanghai Financial Court accepted the compensation claims of Gopher Asset Management and Ziyan Car Rental Service, two units of Shanghai-based Noah, against Camsing but denied those against JD.Com, according to a court document seen by Yicai.

Hong Kong-based Camsing must pay Gopher CNY3.4 billion (USD470.6 million) and Ziyan CNY85 million (USD11.8 million), as well as total litigation costs of CNY20.7 million, according to the ruling, which will come into effect after the end of the appeal period.

Noah will closely monitor and evaluate the case’s progress and protect the interests of investors as much as possible within the scope of the law, it said yesterday.

Everything started in 2015 when entertainment conglomerate Camsing, which owns POW! Entertainment, the former company of Marvel superheroes creator Stan Lee, began to use a faked JD.Com corporate stamp to fabricate documents claiming that the online retailer owned it money.

Camsing then used the bogus documents, involving a total of CNY30 billion, as a form of pledge to secure loans from financial institutions, including Gopher and Ziyan, between 2015 and 2019. The contract fraud resulted in losses of more than CNY8 billion (USD1.1 billion).

In 2019, Gopher and Ziyan filed lawsuits against Camsing and its actual controller Lo Ching, as well as JD.Com, seeking compensation. Three years later, the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court convicted Lo and sentenced her to life in prison.

The follow-up case between Gopher and Ziyan and Camsing was heard at the Shanghai Financial Court last November. Beijing-based JD.Com was also among the defendants.

Last December, JD.Com released a statement saying the company was an unwitting victim in the case that greatly damaged its reputation, rights, and interests. Gopher's due diligence was noticeably flawed, and there were huge loopholes in its investment and financing management, JD.com added.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione