Universal Travel Group – Glaucus Research

UTA, a travel services provider in the People’s Republic of China (“China”), offers hotel reservations, air ticket bookings and packaged tours services. Like many other companies operating in China which have been accused of fraud, UTA went public via a reverse merger transaction in 2006.

In September 2010, investors publicized compelling evidence of the non-functionality of UTA’s website and accused the company of fraud. Up to that point, UTA had pitched itself as an online travel service provider akin to Orbitz (OWW), Expedia (EWW), Priceline (PCLN), cTrip (CTRP) and eLong (LONG). The following quote is taken directly from UTA’s SEC filings prior to the publication of evidence that the company’s website did not work: