Behind The Murder Case Of Jiangxi Developer Zhang Xinming: Deeply Involved In Private Lending Disputes

On May 23, Jiangxi Nanchang Honggutan Public Security Bureau reported a criminal case: in the early morning of that day, a homicide case occurred in Botai Investment Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Botai group"), causing one death and one injury. After the crime, the suspect committed suicide in the office area on the first floor of the group.

After verification, the victim was Zhang Xinming, chairman of Botai group, who was assassinated by the debtor in the office, and Li Xiangdong, vice president of Botai group, was also injured; The suspect is Chu Xiaoqiang, the actual controller of Nanchang Huaxia art Valley Oil Painting Village Art Co., Ltd., who has a debt dispute with Zhang Xinming.

A police circular brought to the surface a dispute between Zhang Xinming and Chu Xiaoqiang involving a high interest rate of 120 million yuan. After eight years of entanglement, the two people, who were once acquaintances, were entangled with each other for eight years because of the debt dispute of 120 million yuan.

Through combing the public information, the 21st century economic reporter found that behind the 120 million yuan debt, there was a high interest loan with an annual interest rate of 24%, and also involved the serial loan of several pieces of land. According to the information reflected in the judgment of Jiangxi Provincial High Court and the report letter released by Chu Xiaoqiang's microblog, the debt dispute may be the source of this bloody case.

On May 26, the reporter called the headquarters of Botai group. The receiver was more resistant and unwilling to talk about the case; In addition, the official website of Botai group has been changed to black and white background color since it came out.

The debt dispute between Zhang Xinming and Chu Xiaoqiang

According to the industrial and commercial information of qixinbao, in addition to the identity of the actual controller of Nanchang Huaxia art Valley Oil Painting Village Art Co., Ltd., Chu Xiaoqiang is also a natural person shareholder of Jiangxi Ruijia Real Estate Co., Ltd., but at present, both Nanchang Huaxia art Valley Oil Painting Village Art Co., Ltd. and Jiangxi Ruijia Real Estate Co., Ltd. have been revoked. In addition, Chu Xiaoqiang was a major shareholder of Jiangxi Hongmei Industrial Co., Ltd., holding 90% of the shares, which was withdrawn on September 6, 2015.

In addition to the chairman of Botai group, Zhang Xinming, the victim, was also a member of the National People's Congress, a member of the China Entrepreneurs' Federation and China Entrepreneurs' Association, and the executive director of Jiangxi entrepreneurs' Association and Jiangxi entrepreneurs' Association.

After the incident, someone in Nanchang real estate circle said that Chu Xiaoqiang was crushed by high interest debt, which was related to Zhang Xinming. What's the truth?

According to the civil judgment of the second instance of the creditor subrogation dispute between Chu Xiaoqiang and Xiong Yunlin, Chu Xiaoqiang borrowed 120 million yuan from Botai group from March 2013 to may 2013, and signed a series of loans to provide joint guarantee liability guarantee, with the principal of guaranteed loan of 142.2 million yuan.

Two years later, from July 6 to 8, 2015, Jiangxi supply Front Marketing Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "the company") entrusted Nanchang Zhanqian West Road sub branch of China Merchants Bank with a entrusted loan of 120 million yuan to Botai group.

To this end, Zhang Xinming and Dechuan signed guarantee contracts with the company successively. According to the contract, in order to guarantee the realization of the creditor's rights of the company, Zhang Xinming and Dechuan are willing to provide joint liability guarantee for the company with the debts under the main contract. After that, the three parties agreed to extend the loan of RMB 120 million, with the extension period from July 7, 2016 to July 6, 2017, with an annual interest rate of 12%.

The Jiangxi Provincial High Court held that the controversial issues of the case lie in whether the equity and housing mortgage proposed by Chu Xiaoqiang are related to the case, and whether the subrogation right of the company can be established.

Finally, Jiangxi Provincial High Court held that the 120 million yuan loan owed by Chu Xiaoqiang to Botai group was due, while Botai group was lazy in exercising its due creditor's rights to Chu Xiaoqiang, and Botai group failed to repay the 120 million yuan loan of Yuanfeng company in time, causing damage to the creditor's company, There are facts and legal basis for the company to subrogate Chu Xiaoqiang to exercise the due creditor's rights of Botai group in its own name.

According to the judgment, at the scene of the (2018) GMZ No. 214 case, Chu Xiaoqiang said that Botai group promised interest as of December 31, 2015, and then no interest will be charged. In this regard, Jiangxi Provincial High Court held that Chu Xiaoqiang did not submit any evidence to prove that there was still a repayment of 12 million yuan and the agreement that no interest would be charged after December 31, 2015. He proposed an oral agreement, which was denied by Botai group. In the end, Chu Xiaoqiang's claim was not supported by the court.

Another version of the story is told by a microblog called "lightning pop-up" without any authentication. On December 21, 2020, in the name of Chu Xiaoqiang, this microblog account published an article with pictures of contract, court judgment, divorce certificate and hospital diagnosis. The article revealed that the loan dispute between Zhang Xinming and Chu Xiaoqiang was "routine loan".

In 2013, in order to acquire Dechuan Industrial Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Dechuan company"), Chu Xiaoqiang borrowed 120 million yuan from Zhang Xinming, and signed a guarantee contract with him, taking 85% equity of Dechuan company as the guarantee of the loan, and the 85% equity pointed to 85% of the 1612 square meter real estate on the first floor of Aijian shopping mall in Zhongshan Road.

Chu Xiaoqiang pointed out in the article that Zhang Xinming was good at using the seal of Dechuan company which he had supervised on behalf of him, and forged a guarantee contract signed between Dechuan company and Botai group on May 18, 2013, with the private seal of Yao Fuqing, the legal representative of the company at that time. Later, Zhang Xinming sold the store without Yao Fuqing's consent and knowledge; In July 2015, the above 85% equity was transferred to RMB 100000. During this period, the matter of forcibly intercepting 12 million yuan returned by others to Chu Xiaoqiang also happened.

However, Chu Xiaoqiang did not produce sufficient evidence in court.

From May 2013 to 2015, Chu Xiaoqiang has paid 62.42 million yuan. The article also points out that Chu Xiaoqiang borrowed 120 million yuan from Zhang Xinming, and has paid back more than 60 million yuan. There are still more than 200 million yuan worth of collateral occupied by Zhang Xinming. Zhang Xinming's "false litigation" led to the court's misjudgment that Chu Xiaoqiang still owed Zhang Xinming 180 million yuan and the interest of 24% per year since 2017.

As can be seen in the attached figure of the article, on October 16, 2020, Chu Xiaoqiang, 57, and his wife, 21 years younger than him, filed for divorce registration. "My wife didn't use a cent in this loan and was also executed as a debt executor. She couldn't bear the pressure and felt wronged. So she divorced me. She also suffered from cancer and asthma due to unfair mental pressure and depression," Chu said.

Another discharge certificate from the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University shows that Chu Xiaoqiang is indeed suffering from sigmoid colon cancer, asthma, duodenal ulcer, non atrophic gastritis and other diseases according to the disease diagnosis certificate issued by two doctors of the hospital on May 25, 2019.

Li Rui, associate professor and doctoral supervisor of the Law School of Shanghai University of Finance and economics, believes that if the behaviors of relevant companies and responsible personnel are suspected of "routine loan" crime, in judicial practice, if the "routine loan" behavior conforms to the constitutive requirements of the crime, the judicial organ shall investigate the criminal responsibility of the relevant personnel with the crime of fraud according to law. In recent years, China has intensified its efforts to crack down on the "routine loan" type of fraud, especially for the illegal crimes of "routine loan" committed by the evil forces involved in the underworld. A number of measures have been taken to provide a more solid legal guarantee. If the people involved can solve the related disputes and disputes by means of criminal charges, then Chu Xiaoqiang does not need to deal with them by himself in the way of self-help and at the cost of "fighting with death", which can avoid the occurrence of two tragic events.

Honggutan plot loan storm

Why did Chu Xiaoqiang borrow money from Zhang Xinming? This starts with another private loan in 2019. According to the civil judgment of the second instance on the private loan dispute between Nanchang Huaxia art Valley Cultural Industry Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Huaxia Culture Company") and Nanchang Huaxia art Valley Folk Village Art Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Huaxia art Valley company"), Huaxia Culture Company won the Honggutan Jiulong Lake plot in December 2011, Later, it was replaced by Fenghuang island. Huaxia Culture Company is actually the financing platform of the land project. After obtaining the funds, it will be distributed to three village companies held by Zhou Ganxiang and others to pay the land transfer fee. From December 2012 to March 2013, after three village companies transferred their equity and land use right to Botai group, the transfer funds paid by the other party were paid to Huaxia Culture Company and Zhou Ganxiang. During this period, it also involved the capital exchange with Jiangxi Hongmei Industrial Co., Ltd. under the name of Chu Xiaoqiang.

In his lawsuit against Zhang Xinming, Chu Xiaoqiang also mentioned that Zhou Ganxiang owed Zhang Xinming 80 million yuan. As the price of the land mentioned above had not arrived, he could not repay his debts, which also led to his inability to repay Zhang Xinming's debts. The court held that this should be dealt with separately, and finally made the above-mentioned ruling.

Both Zhang Xinming and Chu Xiaoqiang are involved in the financing dispute of Honggutan plot, which is more like a cruel market fight.

According to public information, Zhang Xinming was born in November 1964 in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. In 2000, Zhang Xinming founded Jiangxi Botai Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., becoming the predecessor of Botai group.

According to the official website of Botai group, with real estate as its core business, the company is a concentric and diversified development enterprise group covering "real estate, food, business hotel, urban entertainment, mining and property management".

The first project of Botai group is East China International Industrial Expo City; Later, they successively developed projects like Lake Venice and riverside Venice.

If it had not been for the death of Honggutan, perhaps Zhang Xinming's Botai group would have had a chance to do even bigger. Because he just spent 1 billion yuan to buy 21% of the listed company Xinhuangpu (600638. SH). On July 5, 2020, Xinhuangpu announced the equity transfer plan. According to the announcement, Botai Chengxin will hold 21.84% of the company's shares through zhongchong industry and Shengyu Lianhua asset management, becoming the second largest shareholder of Xinhuangpu. The transaction consideration was 300 million yuan. The actual controller of Botai Chengxin is Zhang Xinming. The company was incorporated less than a month ago when the transaction took place. The largest shareholder is Botai group.

The biggest reason for attracting Zhang Xinming is the financial license held by Xinhuangpu. Therefore, New Huangpu has become the "sweet cake" pursued by the capital. The company has already seen frequent changes in its two shareholders.

This transaction has attracted regulatory attention, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange has issued inquiry letters for further inquiry. According to Xinhuangpu's reply to the Shanghai Stock Exchange's regulatory working letter, the consideration of this transaction is RMB 300 million, and the implied leverage fund is RMB 741 million, and the real cost is RMB 1.04 billion.

As of the time of publication, Nanchang police have not disclosed the further investigation results or the details of the case. According to people familiar with the matter, there is no clear agent for Botai group at present. It is not known what impact the incident will have on the subsequent operation of Botai group.

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