(Yicai) Feb. 20 -- A Chinese court has sentenced two former executives of Ningbo Semiconductor International, an electronic equipment firm backed by the country’s largest chipmaker, to four years each in prison for misappropriating funds, the company said.

The court sentenced Huang He, a former director and general manager at NSI, and Wang Ying, its one-time finance chief, last November, the company announced today. It had revealed in August that the two were under investigation.

NSI will not enter into any settlement or understanding with the defendants, the company noted. Huang and Wang have appealed the verdict, Yicai learned.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation has an indirect 15.9 percent stake in NSI, the Shanghai-based chipmaker’s earnings report showed last August.

Founded in 2016, NSI was set up to develop analog and specialty semiconductor technology platforms in the areas of high-voltage analog, radio frequency, and optoelectronics. It completed a Series B fundraiser in 2020 and has a registered capital of CNY4.4 billion (USD615 million) and paid-in capital of CNY2.7 billion, according to corporate data platform Tianyancha.

According to NSI’s August statement, no subsequent fundraising was possible and the company’s equity was seized and frozen after Chen Hong, who controls Shanghai Hengyuan Investment Management, failed to fulfill his capital contribution obligations to NSI and long-term holding of its shares. 

In collusion with Huang and Wang, Chen also misappropriated NSI’s assets for personal gain, causing significant losses to the Ningbo-based company, it said, without disclosing further information about Hengyuan Investment or Chen.

Editor: Martin Kadiev