Overnight, six households! The recent wave of regulatory penalties reveals three key signals.

Listed companies are continuously advancing comprehensive strict supervision. Just on the night of March 20th, six listed companies were investigated and penalized. Among them are newly investigated *ST Aovi, ST Dongshi and Hongtao 3 (Shenzhen Hongtao Group Co., Ltd.) which were issued advance administrative penalty notices, as well as ST Mingcheng, *ST Mubang, and R Changkang 1 which received final administrative penalty decisions. From the stock abbreviations, it can be seen that these companies are already in trouble. Some are on the verge of delisting with *ST, and some have already been delisted but have not escaped punishment. From the punishment of these six companies, three major signals are worth noting. Signal one: Financial fraud will be strictly investigated, even if the listed companies correct it themselves after committing fraud, penalties will still be imposed. For example, ST Dongshi's core reason for being investigated and penalized this time was the false recording in its 2022 annual report. Despite voluntarily issuing a correction notice on April 30, 2024, ST Dongshi was still fined a total of 4.4 million yuan. Signal two: Delisting does not exempt from responsibility, whether the problematic company is in the process of being delisted or has already been delisted, investigations will be conducted and penalties will be imposed. On the same day that *ST Aovi was investigated, it was delisted by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange; Hongtao 3 and R Changkang 1 had already been delisted on August 15, 2024. Signal three: Illegally using funds must be returned, not only delisted but also need to return the funds, and may face penalties as well. This is the case for *ST Mubang, which had a non-operational related party fund occupancy of 1.204 billion yuan in 2024. This money was returned in November 2025, but *ST Mubang was still listed as a reason for being penalized in the administrative penalty decision it just received.