Illegally raised 14.9 billion yuan, fraud and extortion exceeded 800 million, and "black boss" Zhang Wei was sentenced to life imprisonment

Businessman Liang Mourong, who was in urgent need of large funds to expand his business, borrowed a total of 41.35 million yuan (RMB, the same below) from Zhang Wei, the actual controller of Zhongkechuang, four times in five months. These loans became Liang Mourong's lingering nightmare. Zhang Wei and his men were like "brown candy" stained with Liang Mourong, constantly using illegal means to force him to repay debts. For more than a decade, the mafia-related organizations headed by Zhang Wei have illegally seized huge amounts of wealth by "raising blacks with businessmen" and "protecting businessmen with blacks," and a large number of borrowers have suffered greatly from them.

On May 31, the Shenzhen Municipal Intermediate People's Court pronounced a verdict in the first instance of Zhang Wei's mafia-related case: Defendant Zhang Wei was sentenced to life imprisonment, deprivation of political rights for life, confiscation of all personal property, and a fine of 12.17 million yuan for 11 crimes, including organizing, leading, and participating in a mafia-type organization, illegally absorbing public deposits, forcing transactions, and fraud, and was sentenced to 2.07 million yuan and 20,000 yuan respectively The remaining 16 gang members were sentenced and fined; 4 defendant units were fined for illegally absorbing deposits from the public.

With the sound of the gavel, this criminal group that has been entrenched in Shenzhen for more than a decade, as well as the once-popular "88 Fortune Network", collapsed under the fierce offensive of sweeping away criminal syndicates and eliminating evil.

The victim's loan fell into the vortex of "routine loans"

Mr. Liang, who runs four restaurant chains in Shenzhen, was often "patronized" by dozens of men dressed in black during the period when the debt repayment deadline was overdue. These door-to-door debt collectors were "horse boys" hired by Zhang Wei at the behest of Han Zuoji and Wang Dong. They are usually dressed in black, exposing tattoos, and occupying tables. Guests who come to dine to see this battle are often discouraged and dare not enter the store. In addition, these "horse boys" also blatantly drove away guests, ate the overlord meal, and even forcibly took cash from the cashier, which seriously affected the normal operation of the four restaurants.

In order to allow the four restaurants to resume business, Liang Mourong was forced to transfer 90% of the equity of an investment holding company and about 40% of the remaining equity of a state company to Zhang Wei at a price of 100 yuan and 200 yuan respectively. After assessment, the market value of 90% of the equity of the investment holding company was about 138 million yuan at that time, and the value of the shareholders' equity of about 40% of the equity of a state company at that time was 29.13 million yuan.

In fact, Zhang Wei's procedure of lending 41.35 million yuan was not legal. The court found that in the process of lending, Zhang Wei included high "beheading interest" such as 19.5 million yuan into the principal of the loan by signing a false loan contract and fictitious capital flow, and proposed to use about 59% of the equity of a state company actually controlled by Liang Mourong as debt security.

In another borrowing incident, the victim, Sun Mouqin, borrowed 18.524 million yuan from Zhang Wei. When borrowing for the first time, Zhang Wei asked Sun Mouqin to entrust the notarization of 11 properties under his name to the person designated by Zhang Wei as a debt guarantee, and Zhang Wei actually spent 1.67 million yuan to handle the above matters. In the actual process of borrowing, Zhang Wei successively collected various nominal fees such as "beheading interest", service fees, intermediary fees, handling fees, and notary fees from Sun Mouqin, and later further increased the debt by repaying the loan by means of loan repayment and fictitious capital flow in the process of repayment. When Sun Mouqin was unable to repay the loan, Zhang Wei instructed Huang Bin, Liu Wenli and others to use the notarized entrustment contract signed earlier to sell Sun Mouqin's 11 properties, totaling more than 58.09 million yuan, and finally appropriated them for themselves.

This reporter learned from the collegial panel that the criminal group headed by Zhang Wei signed contracts in the form of fraud in the process of private lending, or used extortion and forced transactions to seize the equity of the victim's company or land or real estate for itself when the victim was unable to repay. It was found that from 2011 to 2017, the criminal group headed by Zhang Wei had defrauded 4 cases totaling more than 400 million yuan and 5 cases of extortion totaling more than 410 million yuan.

Zhang Wei's criminal group illegally raised more than 14.9 billion yuan

So, Zhang Wei can lend so much money, where does his money come from?

Since 2004, Zhang Wei has successively established a series of companies with the prefix of "Zhongkechuang" (Zhongkechuang Group) and controlled the above-mentioned companies in the form of his own ownership or entrusting others to hold them on his behalf. In the process of wealth accumulation, Zhang Wei gradually formed a mafia-type organization with Him as the organizer and leader, Han Zuoji and Wang Dong as active participants, and many subordinates as participants by attracting neighbors, recruiting younger brothers, and hiring employees.

The court found that Zhang Wei illegally absorbed 14.9 billion yuan of public deposits from 2011 to 2017 in the name of a company or individual through the "88 Fortune Network", private equity funds, and borrowing from the public. "Zhang Wei promised the lender to guarantee the principal and interest, disguised to absorb the public's deposits, and borrowed the money for others as well as for himself." According to the collegial panel judge, Zhang Wei used part of his illegal gains for investment and earned guarantee fees; the other part was then lent to others, collected high "beheading interest", and mostly grabbed huge profits in the form of "routine loans", resulting in many borrowers being unable to repay. In the debt collection process, Zhang Wei and his subordinates have carried out a series of illegal and criminal activities such as forced transactions, intentional injury, illegal detention, extortion, crowd fighting, picking quarrels and provoking trouble, false lawsuits, and illegal intrusion into residences.

In particular, the "88 Fortune Network" online financing platform of China Kechuang Group, which began to operate in October 2013, marketed to the public the promised principal and interest-guaranteed wealth management products issued by the platform, and even well-known artists signed contracts to endorse it. For a time, Zhongkechuang Group was in the limelight, and wealth rolled in. As of the time of the case, the funds absorbed by the "88 Fortune Network" were nearly 3.2 billion yuan, involving 63,543 accounts of the fundraising participants.

In 2018, Zhang Wei, a madman in the capital market, was investigated for his involvement in black crime. On April 10, 2019, the Shenzhen police issued a briefing announcing that they had successfully destroyed a criminal syndicate headed by Zhang Wei, the legal representative of Shenzhen Zhongkechuang Financial Holding Group Co., Ltd.

The hegemonic boss forcibly lowered the decoration price to save money

At the trial, Zhang Wei and others also tried in vain to exonerate themselves by "developing Internet finance", but Zhang Wei, who had not filed a record, had already violated the law. In addition to illegally absorbing deposits from the public, Zhang Wei's crimes are not as good as this. In the eyes of many victims, Zhang Wei is very domineering.

In July 2013, a subsidiary of Zhongkechuang Group controlled by Zhang Wei leased two floors of Building 4 of Huanggang Business Center, Jintian Road, Futian District as office space. In order to save money, Zhang Wei, who had no results in discussing with the decoration company, asked Liang Mouyang, who was renovating his private villa, to undertake the decoration project. Liang Mouyang also refused on the grounds that the offer was low. Zhang Wei threatened not to pay the final payment for villa decoration, and Liang Mouyang was forced to undertake. In August of the same year, the subsidiaries of Zhongkechuang Group leased office space in Guangzhou and Chengdu, and Zhang Wei found Liang Mouyang to contract. Liang Mouyang still refused with a low offer.

Zhang Wei was not happy and instructed Han Zuoji to invite Liang Mouyang to a hotel in Futian for an interview. During the interview, Han Zuoji's "horse boy" beat Liang Mouyang up, and the threatened Liang Mouyang once again undertook two renovation projects at a low price. According to statistics, the total amount of the three decoration projects was 6.918 million yuan, and Liang Mouyang suffered a loss of 850,000 yuan for this. In order to save the 850,000 yuan, Zhang Wei, who illegally absorbed tens of billions of yuan in public deposits, did not hesitate to go to great lengths, forced transactions, and even beat and threaten.

In a case of illegal detention, Zhang Wei's subordinate Li Mou "secretly Chen Cang" when collecting debts, was not only beaten by Zhang Wei, but also detained. Li was instructed by Zhang Wei to follow up on the follow-up repayment of the borrower Li Qi, and Li Qi repaid on time, but did not expect that Li intercepted 395,000 yuan per month. Zhang Wei thought that Li Qimou would not pay back the money, and joined forces with Han Zuoji to beat Li Qimou. After learning the truth, Zhang Han and the two of them swung their fists at Li again, asking him to "spit out" the money. Li Mou, who was detained for one day, raised 110,000 yuan under han Zuoji's custody and handed over the real estate certificate guarantee before the ban was lifted.

Among the criminal facts ascertained by the court, Li Mouzi, Hu Mou, Huang Mousheng, and Zhao Mouping were forced to resign because their companies were harassed by Zhang Wei's "horse boy"; Sun Mouqin, Xu Moulai and 7 others were directly beaten violently, of which Huang Mouquan did not dare to be injured because of fear; 5 people of Xu Mouping were divorced because they were infringed by Zhang Wei's criminal group; the real estate of 6 people including Sun Mouqin was encroached upon; and 7 people, including Zuo Mouke, were mentally coerced... In addition, 4 people were persecuted, resulting in the bankruptcy of the enterprise and serious difficulties in their own lives.

In the face of ironclad evidence from more than 550 volumes, Zhang Wei and his gang, who had committed many crimes, were finally punished according to law.

Source: Read client

Author: Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Daily reporter Qi Jincheng