Author: Shuye, Financial Gossip Girl
The latest news made many people applaud.
On the evening of August 20, with the strong assistance of relevant domestic departments, our embassy in Thailand and Thai law enforcement agencies, the Ministry of Public Security's "Fox Hunting Operation" working group successfully extradited Zhang Moumou, a major economic crime suspect suspected of organizing and leading pyramid selling activities, from Thailand.
This case is the first economic crime suspect extradited from Thailand by China after the China-Thailand Extradition Treaty came into effect in 1999.
Who is this Zhang? What crime did he commit?
Do you still remember the leader of the MBI Group who embezzled 500 billion, lived freely in Thailand for many years, and cheated tens of millions of people? I have written about him before. This Zhang is the leader Zhang Yufa.
The MBI Group, founded by Zhang Yufa, carried out the "scam of the century" and defrauded the Chinese of 500 billion yuan. He then fled from Malaysia to Thailand and became a "monk" in a temple, shocking everyone.
During the years he spent hiding in Thailand, Zhang Yufa lived an extravagant life. Not only did he buy a street in Songkhla on the border, he also opened five-star hotels, entertainment venues, amusement parks and shopping malls. He also built Thailand's largest Ganesha statue worth 50 million baht and a jewel-decorated Brahma statue worth 50 million baht. He was extremely arrogant.
In 2022, Zhang Yufa was arrested in Thailand, and the lawsuit lasted for more than two years. At that time, China immediately applied to extradite him back to China, but he also committed a crime in Malaysia, and Malaysia also wanted to extradite him. So it took some time to extradite him this time.
The fact that this huge swindler, who was involved in a case worth hundreds of billions of dollars and caused many Chinese people to lose their fortunes, was extradited to China for trial shows that no matter how cunning a person who does evil is, he will eventually pay the price for his actions.
He fled from Malaysia to Thailand to become a monk, embezzled NT$500 billion and cheated countless wealthy people
Now, the "Chinese fraudster" Zhang Yufa has finally been extradited back to China. Unexpectedly, this lawsuit lasted for two years.
Zhang Yufa was escorted back to China
As early as July 2022, Zhang Yufa was arrested in Thailand. After his arrest, the Thai side detained Zhang Yufa in the local immigration detention center and then escorted him to Bangkok for detention. Soon, Thailand will revoke his Thai visa and deport him.
At that time, China saw an opportunity and quickly made a request to bring him back according to the extradition treaty between China and Thailand. As early as November 2020, China issued a red notice through Interpol to arrest him.
However, Malaysia also wants to extradite Zhang Yufa and has submitted an application to the Thai authorities.
After all, Zhang Yufa also committed crimes in Malaysia and set up the infamous "pyramid scheme". Because of selling MBI stocks, all his assets were frozen and he was wanted by the Malaysian police.
As early as October 2019, a massive action took place on the streets of Malaysia, shocking the entire Chinese-speaking community.
At that time, hundreds of Chinese surrounded the Malaysian Embassy, knelt in the rain to seek justice, accusing the Malaysian investment company MBI of defrauding a huge amount of RMB and demanding that the scammer Zhang Yu return the money.
It is rumored that three suspected radical victims broke into a luxury house in Mount Gambier, Penang with knives. This luxury house is the home of Zhang Yufa’s son.
By that time, Zhang Yufa had embezzled more than 500 billion yuan and the number of victims reached tens of thousands.
After the incident, the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia issued five statements in a row, calling on the companies involved to respond to the demands and calling on the victims to "comply with local laws."
What's surprising is that at that time, Zhang Yufa went to Na Thawi Temple in Songkhla Province, Thailand, to become a monk, and declared that he had converted to Buddhism "out of respect for the abbot of the temple." The former swindler suddenly transformed himself into a devout Buddhist.
This made the public cry out that they couldn't understand it, and they said it in one sentence: Even becoming a monk could not wash away his sins.
Zhang Yufa certainly did not change his ways. He just saw that extradition and communication with the local courts would take time, so he wanted to use this time to find an opportunity to escape extradition.
At the same time, Zhang Yufa also tried to make a comeback in Thailand. Don't mention it, he actually did it.
During his "escape in Thailand", Zhang Yufa lived a wealthy life and still acted like a boss. He bought an entire street in Songkhla Province on the southern border of Thailand, and opened hotels, entertainment venues, amusement parks, and shopping malls there. The total area was equivalent to more than 200 football fields and was worth over 10 billion baht.
After making money, Zhang Yufa bribed Thai politicians and gave money to some local officials in exchange for local protection, and continued to do business freely. If nothing went wrong this time, I'm afraid he would have bought half of Songkhla Province.
But the law is long and narrow. In 2022, Zhang Yufa was arrested in Thailand and waited for trial. It was not until May this year that the Thai court finally made the decision to send Zhang Yufa to China for trial. In August, Thailand nodded in agreement.
Then, the staff of the Chinese Embassy in Thailand took Zhang Yufa from the Bangkok prison, took him to Bangkok Airport, and completed all the exit procedures. On August 20, with the cooperation of various Chinese departments, the Chinese Embassy in Thailand and law enforcement units, Zhang Yufa was finally brought back from Thailand.
It is worth noting that this is the first time that China has extradited a suspect of economic crime from Thailand since the China-Thailand Extradition Treaty came into effect in 1999.
According to Thai media reports, after receiving the news that he would be extradited to China last month, Zhang Yu was so worried that he could not eat or sleep, and lost 40 kilograms in a month.
Now that the news of Zhang Yufa's extradition has come out, victims have rushed to tell others.
Yu Jiafu
On August 21, lawyer Yu Jiafu held a press conference. On behalf of 400 Chinese victims, he said that everyone was very happy to hear that Zhang Yufa would be tried in China, and they had finally waited for this day.
As early as November 2021, Yu Jiafu announced that he would file a civil lawsuit against MBI International Group and Zhang Yufa on behalf of 400 Chinese investors, accusing them of fraud through money games and recovering hundreds of millions of yuan in investment funds.
He also revealed that in June this year, he specifically sent an email to Thailand to inquire about the extradition issue. In August, he received a reply saying that the Thai court decided to send Zhang Yufa back to China in the second instance.
Yu Jiafu emphasized that on October 7 this year, he will continue the lawsuit in the Kuala Lumpur Court on behalf of these 400 victims and vow to recover everyone's hard-earned money.
Is there any hope of getting these hundreds of billions of dollars back?
Invite celebrities to endorse and do charity work, but turn virtual currency into a pyramid scheme
What "magic trick" did Zhang Yufa use to defraud the Chinese of 500 billion yuan in one go?
In fact, he was engaged in virtual currency pyramid selling. In 2015, riding on the popularity of virtual currency, Zhang Yufa established the "MFC Game Financial Management Platform" and issued virtual currencies such as Yiwu Points and Walker Gold. At that time, there were many people issuing coins, but his main feature was packaging.
In order to lure people into the trap, Zhang Yufa packaged it as a legitimate company. He first spent a lot of money to bribe some retired Malaysian officials to serve as consultants for the company. With official endorsement, the credibility was greatly increased.
Then, he invited celebrities to endorse his work. Celebrities such as Eric Moo once had close contacts with Zhang Yufa, and MBI even sponsored Eric Moo's concert.
In addition, Zhang Yufa also did a lot of charity. Who could have thought at that time that a philanthropist would be a liar?
Eric Moo (center) and Zhang Yufa (right)
This is not the end. If you want to buy his coins, there are still thresholds. His routine is that if you want to become an MBI member ("M fan") of his group, you must apply for virtual coins ranging from 700 yuan to 350,000 yuan to obtain an annual rate of return ranging from 10% to 200%.
If you recruit new members, you will receive different levels of rewards. The direct referral reward is 6%-10% of the downline member's investment amount; the matching reward is 6%-10% of the downline member's left and right district membership fees; the leadership reward is 4% of the downline or even the sixth level member's matching reward.
MBI claims that its currency is like a stock, but it only goes up and never goes down. When it rises to a certain height, you can start to divide the money and increase the exchange points. As long as the money is in it, it will continue to double, and the more you buy, the more you earn.
Want to withdraw money? Yes, but it's a little slow. It only takes one second to buy 10 million, but it takes a day to withdraw 10,000. Do you think it's too slow? No problem, you can sell your coins to other "M fans", isn't that faster?
These coins can also be used to spend at MBI's hotels and shopping malls. Are you still worried about not being able to circulate? Therefore, the treatment of "making money while lying down in a formal company" attracted a large number of people to join.
After making its fortune in Malaysia, MBI also extended its reach to China, looking for more “buyers”.
In 2012, He Zhenqiu and Gu Xiping joined MBI through Zhang Yufa and brought MBI to China. At that time, He Zhenqiu was called the "Chinese Stock God" by his followers. He claimed that this model could make everyone "forced" to become rich.
Under this temptation, a large number of fans stayed up all night to "dig for gold" and rushed into Zhang Yufa's trap one after another. MBI also spread wildly across the country through human-to-human transmission.
By 2015, MBI's scale had snowballed to tens of billions, becoming one of Malaysia's leading large enterprises.
To put it bluntly, this is a typical "Ponzi scheme", which treats the investment of new "leeks" as the income of old "leeks", attracting an endless stream of "leeks" to enter the market...
All these people were deceived by Zhang Yufa. One believer said, "He taught us how to invest, and we believed in him without a doubt. We even respectfully called him 'Dad Zhang'. In our hearts, he was the head of the family."
In the MBI fan group, someone once said: "Zhang Yufa's wisdom is beyond your reach even if you have ten thousand brains. Worship him and believe in him."
But MBI cheated them badly: some people brought MBI “comrades” back home, which led to a complete breakdown of their marital relationship; some people insisted on investing despite the obstacles and even severed ties with their children; and some people invested all their savings in MBI, but in the end they didn’t get a penny back...
In 2015, the Chinese police first exposed Zhang Yufa's scam and identified MBI as a pyramid scheme. After that, the public security organs of Guangxi, Shanghai and Sichuan successfully cracked a number of MBI's major cross-provincial network pyramid scheme criminal cases and froze more than 100 million yuan of funds and assets involved in the case. However, investors still firmly believe that MBI was wronged.
In 2017, China and Malaysia jointly cleaned up MBI. The Chinese leaders He Zhenqiu, Gu Xiping and 12 others were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 8 years to 1.5 years by the Xuzhou Court for organizing and leading pyramid selling activities, and were fined between 600,000 and 100,000 yuan.
At the same time, Malaysia launched an anti-pyramid scheme operation code-named "Operation Token". Zhang Yufa's mansion was searched, more than 90 accounts and over 100 million yuan of funds were frozen, and he was detained by the police for many days.
Despite the fierce operation, Zhang Yufa was eventually charged with the trivial crime of "issuing coins without permission" and was soon released on bail. He suddenly joined the WCO World Crypto Organization and became an international blockchain angel investor. At that time, many investors still believed that MBI Group was strong and would survive this difficult time.
In May 2018, according to Malaysia's Sin Chew Daily, Zhang Yufa was prosecuted by a local court. Prior to this, the Malaysian Police Headquarters froze all of Zhang Yufa's assets in Malaysia and put him on the high financial risk blacklist. At this time, investors still had illusions about MBI.
It was not until 2019, when they could no longer withdraw their money, that they realized they had been deceived, but it was too late. Many people foolishly paid a lot of money, but they didn't even know who Zhang Yufa was...
The “super rich” turned out to be a low-level liar. Even Buffett was badly slandered by him?
There are several different opinions about Zhang Yufa's identity.
As the man behind the MBI Group, Zhang Yufa packaged himself as a "super rich man", opened high-end consumer places, bought an airline with a large sum of money, and built a huge business empire in Malaysia.
His MBI Group operates a wide range of industries, including real estate, supermarket chains, online shopping malls, film and television companies, apartment hotel chains, green home furnishings, etc., with assets amounting to tens of billions.
Zhang Yufa's background also seems to be very strong. He boasts that he is the cousin of the "Father of Malaysia's Nation" and the Chief of the Malaysian Police Department endorses his company...
In fact, Zhang Yufa's family conditions are quite ordinary. His ancestral home is in Guangdong Province, and he is a third-generation Malaysian Chinese. He started to mix in society early, selling mobile phones, small appliances, and clothing, but most of his life is almost over, and he has not made any money.
It was not until 2008 that Zhang Yufa, who was in his 40s, made his first pot of gold, but his method of making money was unusual.
At that time, Zhang Yufa, Zhang Zhihao and Wang Dongshan opened the "Hongdao Coffee House" chain together. There were only two or three items on the menu, and they were often out of stock. How could such a store continue to operate?
But he figured out the shareholder system, claiming that investors "can make money while drinking coffee."
Here, you only need to pay a few thousand yuan to become a shareholder, and you can receive a large number of consumer coupons every month. The most important thing is that you can enjoy a 5% return every month, and the annualized rate of return reaches 60%. The investment can be multiplied several times in 5 years. If you bring people in, you can also get generous commissions.
Hongdao Coffee was once very popular and flourished everywhere, but in fact it was just an empty shell. Those "shareholders" who paid money did not get a penny of shares. Zhang Yufa used the money to open more Hongdao Coffee chain stores, and then used these coffee shops to attract more people to "invest in shares".
Thanks to this covert pyramid scheme, Hongdao Coffee had as many as 3,000 shareholders and Zhang Yufa made tens of millions of yuan. But soon, Hongdao Coffee collapsed, and Zhang Yufa and his partners were thrown into jail and convicted of fraud by a local Malaysian court.
But no one knows what means were used, but Zhang Yufa was released from prison within half a year, and then he began to brew a bigger conspiracy...
Afterwards, Zhang Yufa and his good friend Wang Zihua jointly established a company called "Dream Group". Since it is easy to be "wiped out" if they run an entity, they decided to tinker with the so-called "light assets" and identified this cost-free, high-yield pyramid scheme model.
And this Wang Zihua is also a tough guy. He calls himself "Datuk", but in fact he is a horse stacker. He takes people to the casino to gamble and takes a commission. He also makes money through real estate and stock investments. Until the financial crisis, he still lied that he was the "Prince" of Perak, Malaysia.
Later, Zhang Yufa established the MBI Group based on the Dream Group they jointly opened, with the full name of “Malaysia MBI Group”. Its headquarter is located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Its initial businesses included clothing, hotel chains, film and television, etc.
In 2012, Zhang Yufa came into contact with SMI in Hong Kong, China, a "technology company" that mainly deals with games and invests in the token market. It claims to be able to "let money work for you" by "using games to manage finances." This financial management game is actually about paying money to develop downlines.
Compared to Zhang Yufa's previous coffee shop, SMI's business model is more mature. They not only have online businesses such as consumer websites and program development companies, but also various offline businesses including games, nail salons, coffee shops, and diet therapy.
SMI claims that it "does not engage in direct sales or speculation, but simply copies Buffett's financial management system." However, if Buffett heard this, he would probably be so angry that he would faint.
Soon, SMI was targeted by the police, so it changed its name to Finnciti, but the substance remained the same. Seeing SMI going downhill, Zhang Yufa also "returned from school" and incorporated the SMI system into his own MBI company, and then made a big fortune with virtual currency...
But in the final analysis, it is all a trick of "changing soup but not medicine". Zhang Yufa was engaged in pyramid selling and scamming at the same time, but the huge bubble will eventually burst. Now, Zhang Yufa has been extradited back to China, and he is waiting for the trial of Chinese law. It's just a pity for the investors who were deceived, hundreds of billions of dollars!
Investment is risky, and there are so many scammers. You must keep your eyes open and don't be dazzled by high profits and high returns...
References:
"The case involved more than 100 billion yuan! A major economic crime suspect was extradited from Thailand to China", People's Daily
"The Malaysian swindler who cheated the Chinese of 500 billion went to Thailand to become a monk", ELLEMEN Ruishi
