On January 5, LAN Shili, the former richest man in Hubei Province and founder of East Star Group and East Star Airlines, said in an interview with shell finance reporters that he had been acquitted of the case of contract fraud.
On January 5, the shell finance reporter contacted the Guangzhou intermediate people’s court that made the judgment and the other party of the case, Michael (002719. SZ), through e-mail, telephone and other forms, but received no reply.
A criminal judgment of Guangzhou intermediate people’s Court of Guangdong Province, signed on December 17, 2021, issued by LAN Shili to reporters, shows that the court acquitted the defendant LAN Shili in the case of the public prosecution accusing LAN Shili of contract fraud.
According to the judgment, the court held that the defendant LAN Shili cooperated with Li Quanjiang (i.e. Li Meng) to acquire the company’s equity. During the performance of the contract, the defendant LAN Shili privately transferred 60% of the transferred company’s equity, but the above facts can not be determined that he had the intention of illegal possession subjectively. Objectively, the defendant LAN Shili also failed to sign Defraud the victim of money by performing the contract. The public prosecution accused the defendant LAN Shili of contract fraud. The facts were unclear and the evidence was insufficient, so the accused could not be established. The defendant LAN Shili and his defenders have established and supported the defense reasons that do not constitute the crime of contract fraud. The court acquitted the defendant LAN Shili.
LAN Shili, who founded East Star Group and East Star Airlines and is known as “the first private airline in China”, was a star entrepreneur of great concern in his early years. In 2005, LAN Shili became the richest man in Hubei by virtue of his wealth of more than 2 billion yuan on the Forbes rich list. In 2008, the global financial crisis broke out, East Star Airlines was also affected and finally went bankrupt, and LAN Shili himself fell into litigation. In April 2010, LAN Shili was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment by the first instance of Wuhan intermediate people’s court for evading the recovery of taxes owed. In August 2013, LAN Shili was released from prison after converting the time of imprisonment before imprisonment.
The lawsuit that put LAN Shili on the “red link” list after more than three years out of prison needs to be traced back to 2015.
In March 2015, LAN Shili signed a cooperation agreement with Li Yong, the actual controller of maixier (002719. SZ), a listed company in Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and his brothers Li Meng and Li Gang. The two sides plan to cooperate in the acquisition of Orient Thai Airlines Co.Ltd (hereinafter referred to as “Thai Eastern Airlines”). Later, however, LAN Shili and Li brothers had disputes over the payment of acquisition money, equity transfer and company management during the performance of the contract. In February 2016, Li brothers reported the case to Guangzhou police. On March 2, 2016, Guangzhou Public Security Bureau filed a case for investigation.
LAN Shili was detained on March 3, 2016 and criminally detained the next day. He was placed under residential surveillance at his designated residence on April 8 of the same year and escaped during residential surveillance on July 9.
In October 2016, local media in Shenzhen reported that the acquisition of Thai Airlines by Xinjiang maixil group, the controlling shareholder of maixil, landed. Mai Xier replied that this is the foreign investment behavior of the controlling shareholder and has nothing to do with the listed company.
The series of disputes between LAN Shili and Li brothers over the acquisition of China Eastern Airlines and the fact that Lan Shili’s case has been included in the “Hongtong” list were not made public until the end of 2017.
On November 15, 2017, LAN Shili reported in his real name that Li Yong, the actual controller of Macquarie, and his brothers Li Meng and Li Gang cheated his airline’s 10 billion assets, and accused Macquarie of being suspected of packaging and listing.
On November 16, 2017, the day after LAN Shili’s real name report, Guangzhou Public Security Bureau released a message through the official microblog, which revealed that Lan Shili had been arrested by Guangzhou people’s Procuratorate in 2016 on suspicion of contract fraud, and had been listed in the red wanted list by Interpol.
On November 9, 2019, LAN Shili was arrested in Singapore and escorted back to Guangzhou on the same day.
Sun Jianzhang, LAN Shili’s defense lawyer and deputy director of the criminal Committee of Beijing law firm (National), told shell finance that Lan Shili’s case belongs to the cross category of criminal and civil cases, that is, the case itself is a civil dispute. During the performance of the contract, both parties have a dispute. One party believes that the other party may be suspected of fraud, After preliminary examination, the public security organ considered that it met the filing conditions and filed a criminal case. Finally, after investigation and trial, the court ruled LAN Shili innocent.
Sun Jianzhang said that the cross criminal and civil cases are often careless because of the signing of the contract, the details such as the time, amount and performance period of the capital contribution are not agreed, and the parties do not communicate in time on misunderstandings in the process of cooperation, resulting in a deepening of the rift.
As for the core asset involved in the dispute between LAN Shili and Li brothers, Thailand Eastern Airlines is Lan Shili’s attempt to enter the civil aviation bureau again after he was released from prison in 2013. In January 2017, LAN Shili held a media meeting in the form of video. In an interview with the shell finance reporter of the Beijing News, he said that he had acquired three airlines, two of which were abroad and one in China.
As a private entrepreneur, LAN Shili chose to acquire China Eastern Airlines. Qi Qi, vice president of South China branch of Beijing Airport International Technology Research Institute and civil aviation expert, told shell finance reporters that there were many examples of LAN Shili’s acquisition of China Eastern Airlines around 2016 and 2017. Chinese capital, especially private capital, is optimistic about the civil aviation industry, but affected by China’s civil aviation market pattern, access threshold Limited by factors such as air rights competition, it often used the curve to save the country for investment, acquired airlines in Southeast Asia such as Cambodia and Laos, and flew international routes from local to China as foreign airlines. Such a model was once common at that time.
However, the Thai Eastern Airlines, which has caused many waves, is also difficult to protect itself.
Lin Zhijie, a person in the civil aviation industry, told the shell finance reporter that the management of Thailand Eastern Airlines was chaotic and its safety record was poor. The subsidiary had an air crash in 2007, killing 89 people. On May 5, 2016, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) decided to cut five scheduled destinations in China, cut five aircraft operating in China, suspend the approval of its application for new destinations and aircraft in China, impose a fine of RMB 29000, and list the company as a key regulatory object. In July 2018, Thailand Eastern Airlines closed down and entered bankruptcy reorganization.
(Beijing News)
