February 26, after the Spring Festival in Dongyang City, everywhere is still full of rich flavor of the New Year, the sun on the streets of traffic. Known as the "color a street" of Hanning Road, the original street spread all over the Benjamin Group billboards disappeared, the vast majority of stores or pull on the roller shutters, or by the brick seal. Only the wall has not been cleaned up the "color" words vaguely visible.
But the case of Wu Ying has not been diluted by the strong flavor of the year, Wu Ying's name is still the talk of the town after the Spring Festival.
Beauty salon small boss interpretation of the myth of wealth
Dongyang City Government Information Office publicity officer Chen a little, seems to be more satisfied with the handling of Wu Ying and the Bencent Group, he told the Democracy and Law Times: "So far, from the Bencent Group employees to the public mood is stable, there is no overly radical group events. "
In addition to Wu Ying, four other people involved in the case on behalf of Wu have also been criminally detained. The police have asked the bank to freeze the Benzai Group account, and Dongyang, Yiwu, Zhuji, Hubei Jingmen and other places involved in the case of people and places to take action in accordance with the law.
Wu Ying is Dongyang City, Ge Shan Town, Tangxia Village people, there is no prominent family background. His father was a contractor, and his mother worked as a farmer. Personal experience is not complicated, had a year and a half in Dongyang Technical School after dropping out of business.
In August 2006, Wu Ying, as if suddenly parachuted into the world in front of the interpretation of the wealth myth. Prior to this, she was still just a small boss of a beauty salon in Dongyang in people's eyes. Overnight, Wu Ying's Benjamin Group swept through Dongyang. She has the wealth and energy, so that the people of Dongyang stunned: all of a sudden, the acquisition of more than 20 sets of luxury housing; buy Ferrari, BMW, Nissan and other expensive cars; eat more than 100 stores on Hanning Road in Dongyang; two or three months in Dongyang opened 12 companies; to the department manager's annual salary of up to 500,000 to 1 million yuan, and give each person equipped with a high-grade car; 3 months of continuous charitable donations of 6.3 million yuan; the whole of the Dongyang City, a trial operation to open a car wash and laundry, etc..
Less than a year, Wu Ying smashed the real money 350 million yuan.
In 2006, Wu Ying registered the establishment of Zhejiang Benzai Holding Group, self-appointed chairman. Benzai group information, the company's capital market operations for many years after the shift to industrial investment, is a "tourism, trade, hotel chain and capital investment as the leading set of building materials, engineering construction, engineering design and decoration, home textiles, e-commerce, advertising media, entertainment services as one of the integrated group of companies.
Two or three months after Wu Ying's debut, a Hangzhou media outlet reported a three-page story on the "myth of the Dongyang woman who got rich". The company's first report was published in the United States, and the report is now available in the United States and Canada. Immediately after, a media outlet in Shanghai also followed up with three pages. Dongyang, Jinhua local media, but also a "bombardment". The media rendering, for her later more large-scale interpretation of the "myth of wealth" paved a more dazzling rainbow bridge.
In some reports, Wu Ying's wealth is rapidly expanding, and the legend is even as high as 3.8 billion yuan. According to this data, she was ranked 68th on the 2006 Hurun 100 list and 6th on the list of female billionaires.
Nonetheless, some people have questioned the source of Wu Ying's enormous wealth. People find it hard to understand: no one would spend their hard-earned money like this!
"Wu Ying invested in Internet cafes, laundromats, hotels and car washes are all service industries, and in Dongyang, a small city with limited population flow, it is unthinkable to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at these industries." These investments give the impression that she just wants to spend the money in hand as soon as possible.
Benzai Group disappeared overnight
In the face of public opinion, Wu Ying seems to be prepared. 24 January, Wu Ying opened a small press conference in Hangzhou, where she vowed: "Benzai's funds are clean."
However, on the afternoon of February 10, a large number of police took control of all of the Bencent Group's stores in Dongyang in just a few minutes. That night, the Dongyang city government issued a public announcement, announcing that Wu Ying had been criminally detained by the local public security authorities on suspicion of illegally absorbing public deposits. Dongyang city government has tasked the relevant departments to form a liquidation group, the announcement required with Wu Ying and the creditors related to the Benzai Group in the 11th from 2 pm to register the debts and liabilities.
On the same day, Dongyang police detained another four people involved in the case of Wu Ying's illegal absorption of public deposits.
Starting from the morning of February 11, more than 1,000 employees of the headquarters of the Benzai Group and the subsidiaries of the Benzai Group lined up to receive their salaries at their respective workplaces.
On that day, from Yiwu to Dongyang highway, as well as Dongyang city streets are densely packed with Benzai Group billboards were removed, removed the Benzai headquarters building on top of the "Benzai" two words. The entrance to the headquarters of the Bencent Group and the Bencent Concept Hotel was blocked by bricks and sand.
Wu Ying and her Benzai Group disappeared overnight, just like a few months ago, Wu Ying and her Benzai Group in Dongyang suddenly descended on the same speed to catch people off guard.
In fact, the source of Wu Ying's vast wealth has been investigated by the government and relevant departments, including the anti-money laundering department of the People's Bank of China's Dongyang sub-branch, following a series of media reports. As early as October last year, the anti-money laundering department conducted a seven-day secret investigation into Wu Ying and found that she was suspected of serious financial crimes, and informed the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Bureau of the situation.
The Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Bureau in November has basically mapped out the source of Wu Ying's funds, and on November 20 filed a case known as the "11-20" case.
"Except for a very few leaders, no one in Dongyang knew that Wu Ying had been investigated. But then came the two sessions of Zhejiang Province and Dongyang City, and the day after the two sessions in Dongyang ended on February 10, the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Bureau ordered the Dongyang police to take action." A source familiar with the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Bureau revealed.
The creditor who provided the huge sum of money never showed up
According to the police investigation, Wu Ying's money came more from private lending. Dongyang folk lending circle popular saying is that in 2005, Wu Ying in Yiwu folk lending market has been relatively famous. A chance encounter, Wu Ying befriended a Yiwu boss. The boss not only brought Wu Ying into the lending market, but also provide 5 million yuan as start-up capital. From then on, the high interest rate makes Wu Ying's fame in the lending market soared. Widely circulated news that the boss who provided Wu Ying with the largest amount of loan funds, has lent her more than 600 million yuan.
According to police investigations, Wu Ying has repeatedly borrowed money from the public at a high interest rate of more than 3 cents per month, with the highest interest rate of more than 10 cents.
A middle-aged man who invested in real estate in Jinhua had lent Wu Ying 18 million yuan in November last year, when she borrowed money from him at a monthly interest rate of 8 cents in the name of cooperation on a local real estate project in Jinhua. After urging many times, Wu Ying returned 5 million yuan, the remaining 13 million yuan, so far no trace. According to the man, Yiwu, many bosses, looking at Wu Ying's high interest rates, to 5 points of interest to the private sector to borrow, and then transferred to Wu Ying.
Just two weeks before the seizure of the Benzai Group, Dongyang has a boss just signed a mortgage contract with Benzai, will be 4 million yuan of funds at a high interest rate lent to Wu Ying. It is said that the contract also states that the color to a value of 7 million yuan of real estate as collateral, the color can not repay the due date of the house to the creditor all.
Since the afternoon of February 11th, tax, audit and other four departments jointly registered the debts and liabilities of Benzai Group, the registration amount is only tens of millions of dollars, but mainly to the project payment, material payment and car wash card. Until February 26th, the creditors who provide huge loans for Wu Ying have not shown up.
Some insiders said Wu Ying did not borrow directly from the general public, but only from loan sharks, including professional loan shark fixers. "These people first let the guarantee company step in to get a low-interest loan from the bank, and then lend the bank's money to Wu Ying at a high interest rate through the name of the broker."
In fact, in Yiwu and other places, these professional loan sharks often appear as "borrowing intermediaries", first absorb deposits from the next home at an interest rate of about 5 cents, and then lent out at an interest rate of 8 cents or even higher, in order to earn the intermediate spread.
Experts said, Wu Ying can absorb huge amounts of money in a short period of time, on the one hand, it is its high interest rate as a lure, and more importantly, she used the media hype to improve their popularity and reputation, most of the money lent to Wu Ying is because of the belief in some media reports, only hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars of funds lent to Wu Ying.
The local media in Zhejiang revealed that the original high-profile appearance of Benjamin through the media, is the active choice of Wu Ying and the staff behind the scenes. And Wu Ying directly dealt with the people believe that Wu Ying is the shell of the Benzai dynasty on behalf of, and behind the real manipulator.
Private lending challenges financial policy
The case of Wu Ying has exposed the lagging and loopholes in financial management in coastal areas such as Zhejiang, where private capital is active.
The source said that in the process of checking the vernacular accounts, Wu Ying's personal accounts were found to be as many as 40. China's relevant regulations have clear provisions, never allow the same person to set up so many accounts. If the regulation is strict, Wu Ying and Benzai Group's illegal operation, not so far in a short time. Imagine if Wu Ying had not been so flamboyant in the beginning, would she have been safe? Has business and taxation been carefully scrutinized?
But to this day, the relevant laws and regulations on private lending behavior and illegal absorption of public deposits are still relatively vague definition. According to the relevant provisions of the State Council, "illegal absorption of public deposits, refers to the People's Bank of China without the approval of the social unspecified object to absorb funds, issued certificates, promising to repay the principal and interest within a certain period of time activities." However, in the end, to how many citizens to borrow or borrow how much belongs to the legal scope, especially under what conditions violate the Criminal Law, the relevant laws do not give clear provisions.
Zhejiang has a tradition of "hiding wealth in the people", the tradition of private financing can be traced back to the 1970s, when many small and medium-sized enterprises are mostly financed through private financing, from the bank loan is very little, this situation has continued to this day.
According to the People's Bank of China Hangzhou Central Branch estimates, the entire Zhejiang Province, the scale of private financing reached 130 billion to 150 billion yuan. Currently registered in the Industrial and Commercial Bureau of Yiwu Guarantee Company *** there are 30, the vast majority of the establishment of last year and this year, mainly engaged in the short-term borrowing of funds, guarantees and other services. Such a short period of time, a county-level city emerged so many guarantee companies, see the huge private idle capital.
"To the bank loan, the need for collateral, approval time is also very long, and so get a loan, the opportunity has been missed." Dongyang, a foreign trade business Mr. Chen said, "find a few friends, to about 2 points of monthly interest, not a few days a few million dollars to the account."
The interest rate on loans popular in Yiwu and Dongyang is 3% of the principal at the end of the month, and if 1 million yuan is lent out, the interest rate for a year will be 360,000 yuan.
Tong Songqing, senior lawyer of Zhejiang Wulian Law Firm and master of finance, analyzed that the legal consequences of Wu Ying's case may be: first of all, it is an illegal fund-raising crime. China's criminal law provides that, for the purpose of illegal possession, the use of fraudulent methods of illegal fund-raising, the amount of larger, constitutes a crime. Secondly, it constitutes the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits. The third is not constitute a crime.
Tong Songqing said, with the media disclosure of the existing situation, he prefers Wu Ying does not constitute a crime. Borrowing from the private sector at high interest rates is a violation of financial law, but to constitute a crime also depends on whether it is a violation of criminal law. The interest rate of private lending can be higher than the bank's equivalent interest rate of four times, beyond the part of the law is not protected, but it is not the same as to say that a high amount of private lending is a crime. To constitute the crime of illegal fund-raising, several conditions must be met: first, the purpose of illegal possession; second, the collection of funds by fraudulent methods. From the present point of view, Wu Ying used the borrowed money for investment, there should be no purpose of illegal possession. As to whether it constitutes the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits, the key depends on whether she has absorbed deposits from unspecified members of the public. If only to a specific group of people or even introduced by the boss to borrow money, that can not be said to be absorbing deposits from the public. Because those whose deposits are absorbed are all bosses with surplus money and are all hoping to make huge profits