The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own. Investors have been asking questions about Alibaba’s accounting for months. Now the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is too. The Chinese e-commerce group has disclosed it is under investigation. The scrutiny has already prompted Alibaba to reveal more information about its investments to outside investors. That is a big push in the right direction as long as the fallout ends there. The SEC probe into the $187 billion web giant is wide-ranging. It focuses on how Alibaba accounts for its affiliates, particularly its loss-making logistics firm Cainiao Network, related party transactions, and operating data from Singles’ Day, a giant annual sales event that dwarfs the U.S. equivalents of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. News of the probe wiped out $14 billion in market value on May 25. Alibaba is treading a fine line. Take logistics. Unlike its domestic archrival JD.com, Alibaba doesn’t handle warehousing, shipping or delivery. Instead, most merchants choose from a network of couriers on a data and logistics platform operated by Cainiao. Alibaba says because it has a 47 percent stake and less than half of the board seats, it does not control the business. Yet logistics is critical to Alibaba’s core business and Cainiao’s Chief Executive Officer Judy Tong is a member of Alibaba’s powerful partnership committee, which nominates the majority of the
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