Cover Story: How a Fortune 500 Company Built a Commodity Colossus on a Shell Game

The basis of Cedar’s so-called supply chain business is actually a range of dodgy financing deals that use fake trade flows to inflate revenue and attract financing

Investors who poured billions of dollars into investment products backed by Cedar Holdings Group Co. Ltd. were betting on the commodity giant’s financial strength as a Fortune Global 500 company. But as Cedar repeatedly missed payment obligations, they realized that the multibillion dollar colossus might just be an illusion.

About 8,000 individual investors holding 20 billion yuan ($3.15 billion) of wealth management products (WMPs) backed by Cedar — including some sold overseas — are in limbo as the company’s finances worsen. Cedar also has 2 billion yuan of overdue payments on trust products, investors said.