FX168 Financial Newspaper (Hong Kong) The Wall Street Journal released news this afternoon that Shi Jianxiang, a Chinese businessman who has lived a luxurious life in California in recent years, was arrested in Las Vegas last week and accused of using a visa obtained fraudulently to enter the United States. It is reported that Shi Jianxiang is an investor in the Chinese film "Ip Man 3", and he has previously donated $50,000 to the political action committee associated with former US President Trump.
According to a statement dated Oct. 29, Shi Jianxiang, a 57-year-old Chinese businessman, was arrested this week at a conference event in Las Vegas on cryptocurrency investments.
The statement said that Shi Jianxiang appeared in the U.S. federal court for the first time in Las Vegas on the 28th, and the federal magistrate believed that he had the possibility of escaping and ordered him to be detained pending trial in Miami.
The Justice Department statement added that Shi Jianxiang lied in the process of obtaining a U.S. nonimmigrant visa and used the two visas obtained to enter the United States at Miami International Airport in 2016.
The statement said Mr. Shi said he had never used another name when applying for a visa, but in fact held another travel document, long Niu, which he used to enter the United States in February 2017.
Mr. Shi also publicly resides in California and Nevada under the name "Morgan Shi."
The U.S. grand jury's alternative indictment charged Shi with two counts of fraud and misuse of U.S. nonimmigrant visas.
If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
According to previous reports by a number of foreign media, Shi Jianxiang once served as the chairman of the board of directors of Kuailu Group, which is involved in investment in internet finance and film and television industry, and was wantonly wanted by the Chinese government for suspected fundraising fraud.
According to a 2018 announcement issued by China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Shi Jianxiang fled on March 7, 2016.
At the request of the Chinese government, Interpol added Shi to the Red Notice list in January 2017.
After Shi Jianxiang came to the United States, he acted with a high profile and ran a film and television investment company in Hollywood.
In December 2017, Shi Jianxiang took a picture with U.S. President Donald Trump at a fundraising event in New York.
The Wall Street Journal reported that an investment firm it controls, Moregain Capital Group, donated $50,000 to a political action committee linked to Trump and the U.S. Republican Party.
The report also mentioned that Shi Jianxiang also tried to launch a cryptocurrency in 2019 with the American boxing champion Tyson, who appeared in the movie "Ip Man 3" in which he invested and produced, but was rejected by Tyson.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) canceled all securities of Moregain Pictures Inc., a U.S.-controlled film and television investment firm, in September.
The SEC said the company has not released a financial report since 2019.
It is worth noting that there is no extradition agreement between the United States and China.
The U.S. government has said it does not want to be a safe haven for corrupt Chinese officials.
The U.S. government has in some cases cooperated with China in prosecuting people suspected of financial crimes.
If the name is not familiar, it should be known that in 2016, "Ip Man 3" was released in Hong Kong and the mainland, the movie starred the famous movie star Zhen Zidan and the "King of Fighters" Tyson, according to the data of the Chinese box office network, "Ip Man 3" also reached 770 million yuan in the annual box office in 2016.
At that time, Shi Jianxiang was the chief producer of "Ip Man 3".
Like many self-made private entrepreneurs in the post-60s, Shi Jianxiang spent his childhood in poverty and hunger. Don't mention going to school and reading, even eating enough is a luxury. Shi Jianxiang also told the media, "There is no economic condition at home for me to receive a good education, but I firmly believe that without academic background, there may not be a good career, and there may not be no big career of my own." At that time, Shi Jianxiang secretly resolved to become a banner of the family.
Shi Jianxiang started a printing plant in his early years, and then obtained the first pot of gold from the East China Agency of the American Western Oil Company, and has successively done clothing, trade, real estate and other industries since the 1970s. In 1999, he took over 4 bankrupt state-owned enterprises, including Shanghai Kuailu Wire and Cable Co., Ltd., from which Shanghai Kuailu Investment Group was born, and Shi Jianxiang became famous ever since.
10 years later, Shi Jianxiang turned to the financial industry and tried to build a huge financial empire. In 2014, the rise of P2P, Shi Jianxiang found unlimited business opportunities, and Kuailu Group began to expand rapidly, establishing more than a dozen P2P companies in a short period of time.
Next, Shi Jianxiang began to "high-end" brand packaging, went to the entertainment circle and the upper class, and began to enter the film and television industry. On Shi Jianxiang's Weibo, you can always see his photos with various big stars, wearing a medium-length revised white Zhongshan suit, and taking a thumbs up with the stars has become a character symbol of Shi Jianxiang. At this time, Shi Jianxiang began to swell, shouting out the so-called "Internet + finance + movie" model.
Watching him rise from a tall building, watching him feast on his guests, watching him collapse...
This model did not bring the expected glory, but in exchange for the tens of billions of redemption crisis of the Fast Deer Group, and "Ip Man 3" was the first domino to tear down the building.
In March 2016, only half a month after its release, "Ip Man 3" waited for a ticket from the National Film Market Special Governance Office – it was alleged that there was a phenomenon of false pomp and circumstance at irregular times. Xinhua News Agency said that the film has been verified more than 7600 times, involving a box office of 32 million yuan; at the same time, the total box office contains some self-purchased box office, and the amount recognized by the distributor is 56 million yuan.
Although the rumors of counterfeiting at the box office of movies are not new, with the boom of guaranteed distribution and bundling of third parties, the act of buying box office out of their own pockets has become a commercial means for distributors. But the falsification of "Ip Man 3" is a bit too clumsy.
Soon after the release of "Ip Man 3", netizens from different provinces posted screenshots of ticket purchases, ridiculing that its schedule was "midnight ghost field" and "dark currency special price", and reprimanded the box office for fraud.
From "the same movie hall 10 minutes a show, the ticket price is as high as 203 yuan, one or two o'clock in the morning the scene is full" to "the first row of the theater is the most unsuitable for viewing the movie has been bought by brush brushing", in response to the anecdotal complaints and reports on the box office of "Ip Man 3", the Film Bureau separately interviewed the distributor of the film and related institutions, and verified the number of suspicious scenes through the national film ticketing comprehensive management system and the relevant provincial film authorities, and finally gave a penalty.
Affected by the outbreak of the fake box office incident of "Ip Man 3", the stock prices of Shi Jianxiang's joint-stock companies have plummeted in an "avalanche". At the end of March 2016, there was a redemption crisis on its Internet financial P2P platform, and the redemption parties pointed to Kuailu Investment Group. At the beginning of April, Kuailu Group announced a new leadership team member, Xu Qi served as the new chairman of the board and president of Kuailu Group, and Shi Jianxiang resigned due to health reasons and fled the United States.
In May 2017, Kuailu Investment Group Co., Ltd. was investigated by the Investigation Detachment of the Ning Branch of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau for suspected fund-raising fraud.
From clothing, trade, real estate, wire and cable to entering the film and television penetration to the entertainment circle and secondary market investment, involving a number of financial platforms, film and television companies, listed companies. At this point, Shi Jianxiang's financial empire completely collapsed.
Although Shi Jianxiang's living conditions abroad are unknown, the "Red Notice" he has issued is recognized as an international certificate that can be temporarily detained, and its wanted targets are fugitives who have issued arrest warrants by the legal departments of the countries concerned and asked member states to extradite.
Now, Shi Jianxiang, who once failed to buy a box office fiasco because of "Ip Man 3", fell into the legal net, and also sounded the alarm for all producers who did bad things in the film and television circle.