The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Monday charged SinoTech Energy Limited with lying to investors about the company’s assets, said SEC on its website.

The SEC alleged that the Chinese oil field services company grossly overstated the value of its primary operating assets in financial statements.

The company spent less than $17million buying LHD units instead of $120 million it promised in the IPO registration statement, said the SEC.

In a complaint filed Monday in a federal court in Louisiana, the S.E.C. also alleged that the chairman of the company, SinoTech Energy, secretly siphoned $40 million last summer from the company’s account at the Agricultural Bank of China.

The Chinese company got listed on Nasdaq in November, 2010 and was delisted this January for accounting fraud.