OREANDA-NEWS. April 05, 2013. Longwei Petroleum Investment Holding Ltd. (OTC Markets "LPIH") ("Longwei" or the "Company"), an energy company engaged in the storage and distribution of finished petroleum products in the People's Republic of China ("PRC"), announced that it has filed a complaint (the "Complaint") in the United States District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania (the "Federal Court") against Defendants Geo Investing, LLC ("Geo") and Jon R. Carnes ("Carnes") (collectively, the "Geo-Carnes Enterprise"), and Seeking Alpha Ltd. ("Seeking Alpha"), (collectively, "Defendants").

Longwei alleges in the Complaint that on January 3, 2013, Defendants, acting in concert, authored and/or published an article on the Company (the "Geo Report"), which they knew contained numerous false and defamatory statements about Longwei's business operations to directly discredit the Company's business reputation and constituted libel per se.

Accordingly, as a direct result of the Defendants' commercial disparagement, unlawful conspiracy, fraudulent conduct, ongoing conspiracy, RICO violations through a pattern of  racketeering activity and tortuous interference with business relations, among other claims described in the Complaint (the "Claims"), Longwei has suffered damages in an amount to be determined at trial including, but not limited to, the loss of approximately USD242 million in market capitalization, the ceasing of its shares being traded on the NYSE MKT, litigation costs resulting from a potential securities class action against it, and other damages stemming from loss of various business relationships.

This is an action by Longwei, a public corporation, for defamation, fraud, and RICO violations, among other things alleged in the Claims, against the Defendants for damages caused by the Defendants' conspiracy to defame Longwei's business as part of their fraudulent short-selling scheme to severely decrease Longwei's stock price, while simultaneously "shorting" Longwei's stock, to reap massive illicit gains at the expense of Longwei and its shareholders.

As previously stated, Longwei believes the Geo Report contains numerous errors of facts, misleading speculations and malicious interpretations of events. The Company and its legal counsel in the U.S. and the PRC, as well as its auditor have reviewed the allegations. Longwei has taken the steps to defend itself and protect shareholder value by addressing the allegations and filing the Claims in the Complaint seeking damages against the Defendants.

Additionally, Longwei was not notified by the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") until after market hours on Friday March 22, 2013 that the NYSE had filed an application on Form 25 with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") to strike the Company's common stock from listing on the NYSE MKT.  However, the Company's stock began trading on the OTC Markets on Friday, March 22, 2013 under the symbol "LPIH" although the NYSE released a press release on March 22, 2013 stating that the delisting will become effective on April 1, 2013 unless postponed by the SEC.