Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, July 12, 2002
Billionaire Entrepreneur Missing, Wrapped in Tax Scandal
Yang Bin, president of Hong Kong Euro-Asia Agricultural Company Ltd and the second richest Chinese on Forbes list (with Holland nationality), recently disappeared mysteriously, who was reported to have left Shenyang where his project located.
Yang Bin, president of Hong Kong Euro-Asia Agricultural Company Ltd and the second richest Chinese on Forbes list (with Holland nationality), recently disappeared mysteriously, who was reported to have left Shenyang where his project located.
As known from staff member of a subsidiary company of Yang's Shenyang Euro-Asia Industrial Company Ltd on July 9, Yang had headed for South Korea for an inspection tour and was expected to return to China after 25. But according to people close to him, Yang had left Shenyang to escape government investigations for doubted illegal use of farmland and tax fraud.
Since listed on Forbes on October 2001, Yang and his Holland Euro-Asia quickly grasped Chinese market as a representative of hi-efficiency and environment-friendly agriculture in north China. And Yang was lauded as "creating a myth of getting rich through new agriculture".
But in early January 2002, Yang's company got violently attacked on Hong Kong capital market, and two doubts were raised. First, in a period as short as ten years Yang's personal wealth expanded from 100 million to 7.5 billion, this is incredible. Second, business between Euro-Asia Agricultural and Euro-Asia Industrial could not create real benefits since both of them belong to Yang's Holland Euro-Asia Group. The theory hit Hong Kong stock market instantly and Euro-Asia Agricultural's stock dropped over 18 percent on January 2 this year.
Recently Forbes listed billionaires got questioned one after another by media over tax problems, and related departments in China have rushed to Shenyang to investigate Yang's company, which once claimed a 1.8 billion yuan investment for the "Holland village" project in Shenyang.
When the US people are stunned by corporate financial scandals, the credibility of Chinese private listed companies are also challenged. The public is waiting an explanation from Yang Bin and his Group.