Chinese Mogul Wang Jianlin Accused of Saddling AMC With Debt

One of China’s wealthiest moguls has been hit with a lawsuit accusing him of squeezing cash out of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. to deal with debt problems targeted in a crackdown by regulators back home.

The proposed class action, partly unsealed April 25 in Delaware Chancery Court, claims Wang Jianlin orchestrated a three-part transaction to reduce his company’s ownership stake to 50.01 percent while pulling hundreds of millions out of AMC through stock buybacks and dividends. The deal involved issuing $600 million in convertible notes to co-defendant Silver Lake Group LLC, a private equity firm.

Wang, a Communist Party insider ...