Us media continues to pay attention to the red wanted order for corrupt officials： let Florida shopping center go bankrupt
The picture on the left shows He Yejun, general manager and party secretary of Hebei Haomen Group announced by the Ministry of Public Security of China, and the picture on the right shows Chen Wei recorded by the American Growers Association.He Yejun’s pseudonym after anonymity.
After The New York Times, another famous American newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, also paid attention to the corrupt officials who fled to the United States in China’s red wanted order. One of them, Chen Wei, a corrupt official from Hebei, put a fashion center in Florida on the verge of bankruptcy.
"After being hit by Hurricane Wilma in 2005, the whole business center was affected, and Macy’s and other business residents retreated." The Wall Street Journal reported on May 17th that two investors from China originally wanted to repackage a fashionable shopping mall in Florida, but they had a lawsuit.
Investors with two names
According to the report, the prosecutor named Du Zhenzeng is the chairman of China Tangshan Ganglu Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. He wants to sue his investment partner, a man named Chen Wei. According to the testimony of the lawsuit, Chen Wei is suspected of using their investment funds for his own purposes and leading a luxurious life, including owning a Bentley car and a yacht.
The report pointed out that in the trial in October last year, Du Zhenzeng’s lawyer said that Du Zhenzeng had invested 160 million US dollars (about 1 billion yuan) in this shopping center project. However, Chen Wei said that the money promised by Du Zhenzeng has not been implemented. Then last month, new problems arose. According to the trial and immigration records, Chen Wei was found to have his real name He Yejun.
In April this year, Interpol published a red wanted notice in China for 100 people who were suspected of committing crimes and those involved in important corruption cases. Among them, He Yejun, general manager and party secretary of Hebei Giants Group, who may have fled to the United States in May 1999.
He Yejun, born in 1959, was wanted by a red wanted order on October 6, 1999 for embezzlement of public funds. He Yejun was deeply involved in the case of Hebei Tangshan Haomen Group defrauding bank loans, and he was accused of embezzling 1 million yuan and 120,000 US dollars.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, China’s government is warning domestic lawbreakers through a massive anti-corruption campaign that overseas asylum is not the safe way. Some people on the list have lived overseas for many years, and the United States is their favorite place to go, where they remain anonymous and "create" a new life.
Du Zhenzeng said that he didn’t know about Chen Wei’s past until he saw the report on the list published by Interpol’s China National Central Bureau and recognized He Yejun as the photo. When a reporter from The Wall Street Journal called Chen Wei, who lives in Aventura, Florida, the latter said that he needed a lawyer to respond to this, and then hung up. None of the three lawyers who claimed to represent Chen Wei responded to this, and the fourth lawyer stated that he did not know whether Chen Wei was He Yejun.
According to Florida’s election registration records, divorce records and China’s arrest approval information, it shows that Chen Wei and He Yejun have the same birthday-February 24, 1959. A lawyer who once worked for Chen Wei confirmed in a Florida court last year that Chen Wei was He Yejun. According to the records of the US Immigration Service, when Chen Wei’s wife Huang Hong applied for American citizenship, she also said that her husband had two names: Chen Wei and He Yejun.
Chen Wei’s wife, Huang Hong, the former accountant of yutian county Haomen Group in Beijing.
Huang Hong and He Yejun both worked in Hebei Giants Group, and they got married in 1998. Huang Hong, an accountant in the Beijing office of Giants Group, left for the United States in 1998. In 1999, He Yejun fled to the United States, which seemed to follow Huang Hong’s footsteps. Both of them are on the list recently published by Interpol’s China National Central Bureau, and they are charged with embezzlement of public funds.
A few days ago, the Obama administration has shown its willingness to cooperate with China in cracking down on overseas fugitives. The "red wanted order" issued by China did cause trouble to some fugitives.
The partner claimed $48.7 million from Chen Wei.
According to the court testimony, after arriving in the United States, Chen Wei first worked in a restaurant and then moved to the real estate industry. He visited this fashionable shopping center in Florida. According to American real estate transaction records, Chen Wei spent $37 million to buy this 830,000-square-foot shopping center in 2004. According to the attorney, these funds come from "Tangshan Port and Land", and Du Zhenzeng is the chairman of the company.
Du Zhenzeng is looking for suitable real estate projects in the United States to invest in immigrants, and wants to send his teenage son and daughter to school in the United States. According to the trial testimony, a friend later introduced Du Zhenzeng to Chen Wei.
The matchmaking of friends contributed to this investment. Du Zhenzeng reached a partnership with Chen Wei through "Tangshan Port and Land" and led the investment. A few years later, through this partnership, Chen Wei developed another 32 acres of land near the shopping center. However, Du Zhenzeng said at the trial that Chen Wei never invested a penny in the partnership, but used the funds of "Tangshan Port and Land" and used this influence outside to raise a project loan for his 32-acre land.
Until last year, Du Zhenzeng never got an American passport. During the trial, he said that he was more and more suspicious that the shopping center was not built so late that he could not get a passport. He went to Chen Wei’s theory face to face, but he got a conflicting answer about the financial relationship of the partnership.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Du Zhenzeng fired the auditor and he wanted to fire Chen Wei. However, a document produced by Chen Wei showed that he could not be fired without his consent. This document also has Du Zhenzeng’s signature, but Du Zhenzeng said that this document is forged.
At the trial in October, the court held that the signature on the document was not Du Zhenzeng’s, but it was impossible to judge whose signature it was. Within a few days, Chen Wei filed for bankruptcy according to Chapter VII of the Bankruptcy Law, which required liquidation of assets.
Encore Capital Management, a private equity firm, won the fashionable shopping center for $37.7 million in a bankruptcy auction in March, which will be developed into apartments, offices and an open shopping center. Du Zhenzeng’s company filed a claim of $48.7 million, while Chen Wei filed a claim of $450,000 through a personal statement.
(compiled by Shen Wei)