NEW YORK.  The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged two of China’s Puda Coal Inc.’s executives with defrauding investors. The company’s shares sank to 25 cents per share or 11% in New York.

The SEC charged Puda chairman Ming Zhao and former Chief Executive Officer Liping Zhu, according to a statement from the regulatory body today (23 February 2012). The executives made the investors believe that they were investing in a Chinese coal business while they were actually investing in an empty shell company, the SEC said.

Puda said it received notification from the New York Stock Exchange that the bourse intended to delist its common stock.