Like zombies in a bad video game, Chris Devonshire Ellis just refuses to go away. It would be funny if is wasn’t so pitiful. No, scratch that, it is funny, funny as hell! Don’t go away ever again, Chris, we need arrogant gits such as yourself to amuse us!
So someone on Twitter commented that Chris wrote
another article for his China Briefing website. And that’s fine. The fact that he has no formal education whatsoever does not prevent him from writing out his musings, based in fantasyland though they may (well) be. The fact that he has been living an elaborate lie for the past decade or longer should not stop him from publishing himself, although obviously it should stop anyone with half a brain from believing anything he writes. The fact that his entire company is a sham should not preclude his web-based sketches from being enjoyed by all and sundry. For the amusement value only, of course.
I suppose I should go back a little bit, in case anyone missed it the first time. I, along with a
multitude of
other people,
wrote about the emerging fact that Chris ‘Devonshire’ Ellis invented his educational background out of whole cloth, invented a career in the ‘legal services’ industry out of another piece, and used these fake achievements and experiences to establish himself as an expert in foreign corporation setup and accounting.
As I said clearly, I didn’t know him at all, never crossed paths with him, but I take a bit of offense at someone cutting in line and pretending to have education and certifications they do not have.
I spent quite some money and effort to get my degree and license, and think everyone should have to go through that process if they want to hold themselves out as being lawyers.
So I went over to check out the article, and then clicked through his name, to see what he was saying about himself. And that is where
things get funny:
He stepped down from his position as managing partner of the China Practice in 2007 and now heads the firm’s India practice, based in our offices in Mumbai. He is responsible for the development of the practice across India. He continues to visit China on a regular basis.
And yet he just resigned a few weeks ago, in an announcement that is still online, incredibly:
Feb. 23 – Chris Devonshire-Ellis, the senior partner of Dezan Shira & Associates and publisher of China Briefing, has resigned from his positions today. He effectively leaves the business he founded 17 years ago in South China and the publishing company that is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
“Due to the serious error of judgment I made publishing details of off-the-record meetings with Chinese ministers, I have decided to step down from these roles,” Devonshire-Ellis said. “My responsibilities will be divided up amongst existing partners and our senior personnel. I have enjoyed working with our staff and clients in helping them prosper and succeed in China and I want to thank all those who have helped me over the past 17 years.”
Managing Partner Alberto Vettoretti is now the senior figure for the firm in China, while Sabrina Zhang remains the national tax partner. Andy Scott, managing editor for China Briefing, will be responsible for editorial control.
Devonshire-Ellis leaves Dezan Shira & Associates with nine China offices, 150 personnel, and an international client base. China Briefing continues to publish a monthly magazine in five languages and a popular series of business investment guides to China.
This indicates two things to me: One, that he is the only thing animating his company, as in no partners with any capability. Otherwise, they would have forced him to really remove himself in an attempt to protect their own interests. Two, he is incapable of moving on, as he claimed he had. DS is all he has, apparently, and so he must continue on, even if it destroys his company. He could have positioned himself as a semi-retired founder, and still gone ahead and done his work in India (assuming he really has any), instead, he turns tragedy into farce by continuing on as if nothing ever happened. Sad, yet hilarious.
Thoughts, anyone? Interesting twist in the story, don’t you think?
Haha why am I not surprised. It shows his warped mind. “I can quit but can still be a contributor”. Of course these partner have no say and no power to boot him out. Anyway the megalomania with this article is great yet again. Not that the theory would be untrue, it has been written by self proclaimed think tank journalists back in 2005 and this article of him does not add anything to what has already been written about China’s potential strategy to protect its interests. How many military bases has the US worldwide? So they see a couple of listening posts as a threat. Well they see everything as a threat. For India’s navy a great reason to lobby for more money. Does it have any real meaning for the company business? Nope it only is supposed to make him the “visionary” not just for China business but for macro economics, geo-politics, politics in general. I am actually surprised there is not a whole string of positive comments from his own hand underneath the new articles at the CB website and 2point5billion blog yet. Maybe that still will come as few people are interested in this and he hates an article that does not have some comments praising him.
The fact that he will keep writing his nonsense is nothing new. He needs the attention, we know that by now and he now probably spends more or less most his time to do business in India as few in China would be able to meet him without a good chuckle. As the big equity holder in the DZ China business and HK and wherever he sends his clients invoices from (as billing everything in RMB is highly unlikely), I think Guernsey or something where he has a ltd liabilty company together with his Italian manager, he still has the final say in his China business. In his mind quitting on paper/website would make it look like he is an honorable character. I make a misstake but see, I quit and now I am absolved of all my sins and continue life as usual. That’s how his warped mind works.
This farce will continue just for our amusement.
We all know he has always done what is right by him and not by his clients. We all know that there is no real Dezan Shira there and that the offices are mostly all (or all) virtual. We all know that this guy is not going to stop until some government stops him. According to those who seem to know these things, he is now doing in India what he did in China: claiming to have expertise he and his company do not pocess. It is a farce but it has far too many victims to be funny. I think this commentator here (http://the-truth-about-chris-devonshire-ellis.com/2009/02/21/interview-with-the-china-banking-regulatory-commission/comment-page-1/#comment-97) who calls him a narcissist has it right. This whole thing is just plain bad.
Stefan: Well, I do not know these things, but I would not be surprised. I know a little about how these type of organizations run, and they are usually not client-centered to put it mildly. But the point I make here is that it probably is just him and a few poor suckers who work for him, as if there was anyone else involved of any stature they would have kicked him out for good by now, again in order to protect their interests. I know nothing about the partnership structure at all, or I didn’t until this latest development made things clearer.
Rens: Yes, this is my point. He could change his bio to say semi-retired, or anything really, and still go about his business at least in India, and I would never know and wouldn’t write another post about him. Instead he claims to be handling their India business, with his resignation from the company still online. But that is not good enough apparently.
@Zeb
DZ in China is a real business with real people and real offices. The India organization is similar to what the China organization was in its infant stage: mostly virtual. Chris stepped away from China but never claimed he would step out the India part of the business. Obviously it is all BS but on paper that is what he will claim. That such claim would not line up with his skipper course and sailing between Cape Town and Phuket as stated on LinkedIn …….. well that is his dream. And there I was being jealous of him sailing the high seas, seems I envied a delusion of Mr. Ellis.
Rens, ha yes the ironic thing is that he actually had ‘won’ in some sense there, but he couldn’t stick with it. There are few people that would not like the luxury of being able to walk away from it all and do something they enjoy instead.
And the bizarre thing is he could have changed his company bio to something like semi-retired founder, as I said above, and just continued doing what he was doing. It would have been no barrier, obviously, that couldn’t have been handled with some song and dance for any client who actually checked the bio and asked him. Indeed, companies like DZ feast off of clueless clients who don’t know what they are doing and don’t do any due diligence. But, as we have learned, he has to have the last word. It must have been a tough month for him, knowing he was not being accorded the respect he so richly deserves.
I realize he must have had a certain level of infrastructure in China, although I would not be surprised if most of the company’s time energies and revenues are directly related to their publications. Marketing before anything, I suppose. But again when the entire organization is animated by one person, there are limits to what it can really do and how far it can go, and that goes double when this animating person is not focused on developing others in his organization.
Anybody who spends as much time and energy on website comment threads is probably not making progress in other respects.
Yes, I realize he has an ‘out’, or more properly, thinks he has an out in the language used. Interestingly, Dan Harris of China Law Blog noticed this right away, there is a tweet reproduced on one of these anti-CDE sites that hit the nail on the head. But the point is that he is a fraud, plain and simple, in China or in India.
Oops, I means DS, not DZ. Dezen Zhira?
Ugg, typos. I need coffee…
All I know is that CDE and his company have left many in their wake, including employees and clients and in my opinion, the world would be better off without them. That is why there are so many people trying to spread the word about the truth here. People must know the lies so they can avoid them.
@Rhodo Zeb – Looked at another way, he has established a company which does now, apparently, employ people qualified for their positions. It is his previous clients, the ones who employed a man who apparently believes that you can get a mainland Chinese trademark by “going to the patent and trademark office in Wanchai [i.e., in HK]” which I think may have gotten a raw deal.
It is his online activity, especially his threatening of others and claiming of false qualifications, that puts him especially beyond the pale.
Hi, I applaud your blog for informing people, very interesting article, keep up it coming
Just saw this for the first time and I laughed my ass off. Thanks for running this.
The reason he stepped down (or at least made the public claim that he was — another in along string of lies) was because he was scared to death that Chinese authorities were going to nail him for inventing interviews with Chinese officials than never — ever — happened. The People’s Bank & the China Banking Regulatory Commission publicly posted that Devonshire was a fraud — the interviews never happened and they have never talked with Devonshire.
From his blog:
Funny, but not totally unexpected, how he claims to still have these personal interviews with government officials. Devonshire is a congenital liar.
—–
A while ago I had an unusual problem that got picked up extensively by the international media, and then circulated around many of the China blogs. Having been in China for many years, and as the head of my firm, I was one of the few foreign consultants with access to Government Ministers, and I was able to arrange, on annual basis, meetings with many senior officials. In fact, the summaries of these would then be published in an edition of my China Briefing magazine . It was a useful way to gain first hand knowledge of Government thinking, and I used to ask our clients and readers beforehand if they had questions to ask. Accordingly, it was a useful service. However, amongst competitors, or those not in the loop, jealousy can be the result, and there are people out there waiting for prominent consultants such as myself to make a slip. The vindictive find ridicule is easy to disperse.
I eventually made such a slip when meeting with the Chairman of the China Banking & Regulatory Commission. I’d met him several times before in fact, but on this occasion his time was limited and what was to be an hours discussion was truncated to 20 minutes. Accordingly the occasional protocols of “off the record” were forgotten. In the meeting, while discussing the impact on China of the global economic downturn, he mentioned that he felt the RMB would move against the dollar. I went back to my office, and wrote what seemed an innocuous report up on the China Briefing news site , then went home. The next morning – chaos !
I arrived at my office in Beijing to find my phone ringing nonstop with foreign media trying to find out what had been said and to confirm who had said what. The markets in Europe and the US had reacted to that comment and the RMB/dollar position had moved overnight by billions of dollars. I had no idea that such a small piece of information could be so volatile. Then matters got worse. The Chinese government, in trying to track down the source of the rumors, eventually came across the online article I’d written. In trying to correct what was becoming a major currency issue, they took the only course available to them – they effectively denied the statement had been made, and in fact called the interview a ‘fake’. My feelings at the time were a growing realization that I was in serious trouble. Having the man responsible for China’s national purse strings staring at you after a multi-billion dollar loss is not very pleasant, and I could feel my head was very much on the chopping block. I had to act very fast, as both my career and indeed my entire business was suddenly in jeopardy. The last thing you want to do in China is to upset the Government, and the Chairman of the Banking Regulator is one of the most powerful men in the country.
We subsequently pulled the article off the website and deleted all references. I also issued an apology, but on the basis of a ‘breach of protocol’. However, a photo of myself with the Chairman had also been published , and those familiar with Chinese politics weren’t going to give in so easily. They weren’t convinced as to why the Government had called the interview ‘faked’ while not actually denying that the statement had been made. Here, the Government were actually quite clever – it was ‘fake’ as in unauthorized – not fake as in it didn’t actually happen. The Government had to intervene in the markets, and I thought it would be best to go away and lie very low and not utter a word.
However, with the media intrusion becoming intolerable, I left China for Macau, not knowing if I’d even be allowed back again. Choosing Macau because the story had been covered for days in Hong Kong’s newspapers and TV, I then went to India and our offices there to keep out of the spotlight and let it die down. Eventually it did. But some of the China bloggers, those either jealous, or bearing grudges, had a field day. Ridicule and pent up resentment against me poured out as a constant stream of vitriol. It’s still often put about that the entire thing was made up by me to generate publicity (which would be a very stupid thing to have done, and in any event, I was well known enough at the time not to need additional exposure). The funny thing about all that was that the comments – Fake this, fake that, were all made by people themselves using made up names online. In their determination to ridicule me, they were not prepared to put their own actual identities on the line. That’s cowardly, and in the event didn’t do any good. From rumors I’d been deported from China, to ultimately that I’d committed suicide, the China blogosphere became a rather toxic place to be. One English language expatriate run website even tried to publish which school my daughter was attending. My wife at the time was sent hate emails.
They then went for me personally, digging up old articles, trying tot find out my background, printing all sorts of rubbish. Strangely, no-one ever had the courtesy to actually pick up the phone and ask me. But one story that did the rounds was from my memoirs “The Story Of A China Practice” within which I related the tale of my firms first ever piece of China business, which was a trademark for a bar in Shekou, near Shenzhen in South China. I mentioned how I’d had it marked at the China Patent and Trademark office in Wanchai, in Hong Kong. Several expatriate lawyers and social commentators said I’d lied, that there was no such thing, and used that to further ridicule and attempt to cast doubt on my words. It long ago stopped being a practice of mine to comment when people place nasty material on blogs, they are not interested in the truth, they just want to perpetrate their version of events, regardless of whether they’re right or wrong. Insinuations and half truths are wheeled out as factual, and there’s little point in trying to engage with that kind of mentality. But, for those who are bothered enough to track it down, here are the China Patent & Trademark Agents I used that day many years ago. Still going strong, and still in Wanchai: http://www.ccpit-patent.com.cn. So there are a lot of so-called ‘experts’ who when it comes to it – don’t actually know very much themselves, but are quick to pass judgement on others if it suits them.
The Government eventually forgave me, (I returned to China with no problem after licking my wounds in India for three weeks) and it’s a rather more contrite Chris that meets with Ministers these days. The sad thing about it is that the contents of those meetings remain private, and the previous capability I had of expressing the views of Chinese Ministers to our Readership has been taken away. In seeking to ridicule me for a faux pas, the blog community did the English language reading business community in China a huge disservice. But these days, the lesson learned – and for my meetings with any Government Minister, and not just the Chinese ones – is treat all such conversations as if they are off the record. I still meet with them, but the blog community isn’t going to get to hear about it.
To be honest, Chris. ‘Devonshire’ Ellis is a real professional businessman and I admire his talents for all his kindness and smartness at all.
He is a real gentleman and he knows how to treat others by his royal and very well-educated treatment. Well, at least he knows what he can do and what he can’t very sane.
I only met Chris once at Sense, But I know this British man has a real powerful brain for himself. Other people I met them at Sense were totally so sick and low and even so meaningless to talk about their stupid porns all inside there. Chris was the second smart man that I had just met him in my life, the first smart business man I met was a CEO and I met him few years ago at Hilton Hotel, a real billionaire never says himself is rich, but a creepy puppet always tells others that himself could carry a elephant without his left-hand. I am not rich, but I know what I can do if my brain is full of knowledge or if my brain is really useful for all I need to do.