EXILED TYCOON IN SPOTLIGHT
Employees say instructed by boss to use falsified documents to obtain 3.2b yuan loan
EXILED billionaire businessman Guo Wengui instructed his employees to fraudulently obtain hundreds of millions, senior employees of his real estate company told a court in China’s Liaoning province.
Appearing in the Dalian Xigang People’s Court yesterday, the three employees from Guo’s Beijing Pangu Investment confessed in a four-hour trial to obtaining 3.2 billion yuan (RM2 billion) from the Agricultural Bank of China in 2010 by using falsified company contracts, official seals and receipts. The loan was repaid in full in 2014. Two of the defendants also admitted to the false purchase of foreign currency.
In an online video posted yes- terday, Guo said the facts were “completely different” to the charges, while suggesting any wrongdoing might have been due to his ambitious employees chasing higher pay and bonuses.
“(They) want the loan to go through, want to impress their boss,” he said, adding that China’s banking regulations forced people to do things that they wouldn’t otherwise do.
Guo has emerged in recent months as a political threat to the Chinese government in an acutely sensitive year, after unleashing a deluge of corruption allegations against high-level Communist Party officials through Twitter posts and video blogs. The businessman has made it clear that he wants to disrupt a key fiveyearly congress to be held this autumn.
Guo, who resides in a sprawling US$68 million (RM298 million) apartment overlooking New York’s Central Park, has provided scant evidence to back up his claims. But his standing as a former billionaire insider, and his close ties with one of China’s most senior intelligence officials, the disgraced former state security vice-minister Ma Jian, have tantalised a large online following and made him a centre of attention in Beijing political circles.
While Guo was not named as a defendant in yesterday’s trial, he featured prominently in the prosecution’s line of questioning, with the three employees repeatedly asked to confirm that Guo was the ultimate controller of Pangu and made all major business decisions, including to go ahead with the alleged loan fraud.
The trial is the first criminal case brought against his company since Beijing requested Interpol issue a global “red notice” in April for Guo’s arrest.
“Finances at the time were tight and we needed funds so Guo Wengui already contacted the bank, we were just instructed to prepare documents,” Pangu’s former finance director Yang Yin told the court.
“All the decisions were made by him.” Reuters