Recently, the box office of the popular Hong Kong film "Goldfinger" in the mainland and Hong Kong has exceeded 250 million yuan, and the film is adapted from the largest "Jianing fraud case" in history involving 6 billion yuan.
and Tony Leung's Cheng Yiyan in the play is based on Chen Songqing, the former chairman of Jianing Group, who dominated Hong Kong's financial industry at the time, and was accused of beating Pao Yugang and Li Ka-shing of the same generation in the most prosperous period.
However, 40 years later, the business empire that grew rapidly in the 70s with bribery and fraud still leaves many mysteries, and what happens to the archetypal characters in the play?
The sky-high price of 1 billion to buy the Golden Gate Building
Hong Kong real estate took off in the 1970s, Singaporean civil engineer Tan Chung Ching also decided to come to Hong Kong to develop that year, and made his first pot of gold by buying a large amount of land in the New Territories, and then gradually expanded his business, in the past, there were more than 200 companies under the Jianing Group, covering transportation, shipping, insurance, real estate and other fields, and at the same time extended the territory from Hong Kong to Southeast Asia, Australia and the United States.
Chan's most sensational masterpiece was the purchase of Golden Gate Building (now the Bank of America Center) for a sky-high price of nearly HK$1 billion in January 1980, and nine months later it changed hands and made a huge profit of 600 million yuan, making it the most profitable transaction at that time.
The movie also recreates the scene of the acquisition of the Golden Gate Building, and Cheng Yiyan threatened in front of his subordinates: "It's just that no one has played like this, so that the effect of the atomic bomb can be achieved."
Indeed, this transaction shook the whole of Hong Kong, making Jianing Group a name known to the general public, and at the same time, many small shareholders also bought a large number of Jianing shares, and a series of operations caused its share price to rise from 5.9 yuan to 17.9 yuan, a full triple.
However, with the stock market turning around and property prices plummeting, Jianing soon became ineffective and was liquidated in 1983, becoming the largest company collapse in Hong Kong, innocently implicating countless people.
After the once-powerful business empire disappeared in an instant, it caused a huge impact on the whole society and many suspicious points, until 1985, when the ICAC set up a task force to conduct a 17-year investigation.
Liu Qiyuan, played by Andy Lau, is Zhu Minjian, who served as the senior investigation officer of the ICAC in the early days of the Jianing case, and has been fighting Chen Songqing for more than ten years.
Lau Kai-yuen, played by Andy Lau, is a reference to Chu Man-kin (right), who served as the ICAC's senior investigation officer in the early days of the Jianing case, who is sorting out the extradition documents.
The ending of the archetypal characters in "Goldfinger".
After Chen Songqing was released from prison, he lived in seclusion in the Clear Water Bay mansion
Former Chairman of Jianing Group, Chan Chung-ching (Tony Leung as Cheng Yiyan), used bribery and fraud to manipulate the entire financial sector in Hong Kong, and was finally sentenced to 3 years in prison during the Mid-Autumn Festival in 1996. He has always been low-key and rarely exposed in front of the media, and after his release from prison in early 1998, he lived in seclusion in the Clear Water Bay mansion.
The villa was purchased and rebuilt by his daughter in 1992 for 40 million yuan. It is understood that Chen Songqing is still nominally still a director of three private companies in Connaught Road Central in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. Today, his daughter's business is run by his daughter, including investment companies, real estate, securities and credit.
In 2012, after this generation of wealthy man turned against Lin Xiufeng, the descendant of his former good partner Hang Seng Bank, the two even went to court for 5 antiques, and the court finally ruled that Chen Songqing lost the lawsuit and wanted to pay 100 million yuan in compensation.
However, Chen Songqing refused to lose money, and as a result, the High Court issued a bankruptcy order in the same year, and his friend Zhan Peizhong, a former legislator known as a gold medal bookmaker, once speculated that Chen Songqing did not pay back the money just to "fight" with Lin Xiufeng. Some people who are familiar with Chen Songqing also pointed out that Chen's account in a Swiss bank has deposits in the tens of millions of US dollars.
Mr Chu remains the Chairman of the EOC
Chu Man-kin (Andy Lau as Lau Kai-yuen), then Senior Investigation Officer of the ICAC: Chu Man-kin has been involved in this case for more than 4 years, and the spearhead is directly aimed at Chan Chung-ching.
Prior to his retirement, he was the Director of Operations (private sector) and is currently the Chairman of the Hong Kong Equal Opportunities Commission. The ICAC investigation lasted for 17 years, a record high. According to court information, the legal costs related to the case amounted to $210 million, which were paid by public funds. The ICAC's major expenditure alone has exceeded $28 million.
Zhan Peizhong's case of conspiracy to defraud began this year
Queen's bookmaker Zhan Peizhong (Bai only plays Ren Chong): In the 70s and 80s, when the securities laws and regulations were not perfect, the activities of market makers can be described as "no king's management", and examples of "escorting prices" for listed companies abound.
Bai only plays the role of "Ren Chong" (right), and the character prototype is Chen Songqing's "royal stock maker" Zhan Peizhong.
Zhan Peizhong was very good at communication, and at his peak, he helped 16 listed companies to "be a banker" at the same time. He was entrusted by Chen Songqing to operate the backdoor listing of Jianing shares, and took full responsibility for the delivery of goods, becoming the gold medal royal broker, and assisted in the acquisition of Meihan Enterprise, which was only 1.2 yuan per share at the time at 6 yuan per share, and then raised it by 3 times to 18 yuan.
In fact, Zhan Peizhong is well-known in Hong Kong's political and business circles, and he currently owns about 10 listed companies in Hong Kong and overseas. However, he has been involved in a number of lawsuits, including in 2021 for allegedly concealing a secret "backdoor" agreement when placing convertible shares to increase the share capital of a listed company, and was charged with conspiracy to defraud the Stock Exchange, the listed company, its board of directors and shareholders, and dealing with criminal proceeds of $42 million. The case will commence on May 2 this year.
Lin Xiufeng owed 3.8 million in his later years and went bankrupt
Former director of Bai Ning Shun Lin Xiufeng (Chan Ka Lok as Ho Ho Wan): Lin Xiufeng's father Lin Bingyan is one of the founders of Hang Seng Bank, and the transaction of Jianing to buy Golden Gate Building at that time was through Lin Xiufeng's Bai Ning Shun "left hand to right hand", and cooperated with Chen Songqing to create false transactions.
Lin Xiufeng was eventually sentenced to 20 months in prison for using a forged bank guarantee to take out a loan in the Jianing case. Although he won the antique dispute with Chan Chung-ching, he was ordered bankrupt by the court in 2014 for defaulting on about $3.8 million in finance to Market-Guide.
邬开莉自离开佳宁后销声匿迹
Wu Kaili (Cai Zhuoyan as Zhang Jiawen), director of Jianing Group: Wu Kaili is Chen Songqing's personal assistant, and the English name of Carrian Group is named after her English name Carrina. Less than three years after graduating from Baptist College, she became a director of the Jianing Group and disappeared after leaving Jianing in 1980.
Zhang Jiawen, the woman behind Cai Zhuoyan's role as Cheng Yiyan (Tony Leung) in the play, has been dead set on Cheng Yiyan for many years. The character prototype is Wu Kaili, director of Jianing.
4 homicides, 6 billion funds
The origin remains a mystery
As for the entire investigation of the Jianing case, the four murders that broke out before and after are still a mystery, and the other unanswered question is where did Chen Songqing's money come from to play with the market?
According to the ICAC investigation, Chan Chung-ching's funds were lent by a company named U-Ming Education, and US$800 million (equivalent to more than HK$6 billion) was approved before and after, which was the largest loan in Hong Kong that year, and most of these loans were granted without sufficient collateral or guarantee.
It is worth noting that U-Ming Marine Finance is a wealth of Malaysia's state-owned U-Ming Bank, and if you want to transport a large amount of money from Malaysia to Hong Kong, you can't buy a few people, but go straight to heaven. There was also speculation in the market that the top core of the Malaysian government knew about the matter at the time, because the money was about one-third or even half of Malaysia's foreign exchange reserves at that time.
It is said that this U-Ming Bank was one of Malaysia's "national policies" at that time, and by supporting the bank, it hoped to hand over wealth to Malaysians. However, even if there is such a grand plan, it is not enough for Chen Songqing's "golden finger", and the money of Malaysians is like this, and the bitter master wants to cry without tears. #实话实说#