China initiates new public prosecution on Guo Wengui's company

BEIJING -- Chinese prosecutors have indicted some staff of two companies connected to Interpol "red notice" criminal suspect Guo Wengui, judicial sources said Saturday.

A procuratorate in Dalian city in northeastern China on Friday filed a public lawsuit against several executives and employees of Beijing Pangu Investment Co., Ltd, on suspicion of duty encroachment and misappropriation of funds.

On the same day, Kaifeng City People's Procuratorate in central China's Henan Province also initiated a public prosecution against Guo's Henan Yuda Real Estate Company and its employees, on charges of defrauding loans and bill acceptance.

The procuratorate in Dalian found that in 2008 to get Zhao Yun'an, then chairman of Tianjin Huatai Holding Group Ltd., out of jail, Zhao's wife approached Guo Wengui through an intermediary to bail out Zhao.

With Guo's help, Zhao was granted bail, but promised to transfer Huatai's assets to Guo, so that Guo took control of the company.

In July 2008, without calling a board meeting, Guo directed Qu Long, a defendant in the case and former executive of Huatai, to transfer more than 400 million yuan (about $60 million) to companies controlled by Guo for Guo's personal use.

To keep the 400 million yuan, in 2012 Guo persuaded Gao Song, Ma Nan and Cheng Xiuhua, all former senior managers with Beijing Pangu Investment Company, to forge a series of agreements and memorandums and file a false civil court action.

Thus, Guo transferred liabilities worth more than 400 million yuan to ZhengZhou Haohang Company which has no loan repayment capacity, so that he could illegally pocket the money.

Qu is accused of taking advantage of his posts to misappropriate a huge amount of corporate funds, while the other three defendants are accused of duty encroachment for actively assisting Guo's illegal seizure of Tianjin Huatai's capital.

In the other case, the procuratorate in Henan Province found that in 2008, Guo directed Ma Cheng, Zhang Xincheng, Guo Lijie and Xiao Yanling, all former senior staff of Henan Yuda Real Estate Company, to fraudulently obtain loans and bill acceptance totalling 1.5 billion yuan from seven banks by setting up shell companies and fabricating contracts and projects.

Part of the money was used to clear the debts of Yuda which was controlled by Guo, while the rest was transferred to Beijing Pangu Investment Company or overseas. More than 213 million yuan is yet to be recovered.