Goodbye TB8, page-4

I agree their business model is to sell through contracted stores rather than online. So lack of product being online is not too big a deal since they have never claimed to be selling online.

I think it is better to check management credibility by finding a conflict between what management are saying and what they are doing. Finding that management are not doing what they have not claimed to be doing in the first place may be of questionable value.

For example, the prospectus claims that they have several registered patents. This is something that can be readily checked. The Chinese patent office (called State Intellectual Property Office - SIPO) has an english language website (http://english.sipo.gov.cn/). You can search for the relevant patents using the patent numbers cited in the prospectus (you have to drop the decimal place and last digit). When you do this it does come up with the relevant patents (eg: here) registered in the name of Guangdong Tianmei Selenium Drink Co. The other patents check out as well.

I would have been much more worried if these patents did not turn up. This would have been evidence of a clear contradiction between management claims and reality.

For what its worth, a quick google search of Guangdong Tianmei Selenium Beverage corp (the name of the Chinese subsidiary of Tianmei) also shows that they have been active, hawking their wares at various trade shows in China (examples here, here and here). You do need to scroll down the exhibitor list to find their name.

By itself this does not prove that they are not a fraud. Maybe they are just a sophisticated fraud.

DYOR