cedar Holdings

On October 22, the official website of the Guangzhou City Intermediate People's Court issued the "Announcement of the Guangzhou City Intermediate People's Court on Hearing the Trial of the Criminal Case of Xuesong Group" stating that the court accepted (2024) cases involving 19 people including Xuesong Holding Group Co., Ltd., the defendant Zhang Jin, the defendant unit of Yue 01 Xing Chu No. 245, and the defendant Zhang Jin, who raised funds for fraud, illegally absorbed public deposits, violated trust and used entrusted property, and interfered with testimony. It is planned to hold a public hearing in the second court on the first floor of the court from 9:30 to 19:30 from October 28 to November 2, 2024. The application time for auditing is from 15:00 on October 22 to 12:00 on October 24, 2024. Those who have not applied beyond the announcement time will be deemed not to apply, and online application will be adopted. According to the number of auditing seats, a list of auditing personnel will be randomly selected from the auditing personnel applied in the Guangzhou Micro Court Mini programs. Those who have not been selected will not be scheduled to attend.

According to public information, Cedar Holdings was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Guangzhou. It is a private enterprise integrating real estate, finance, chemicals, trade, clothing, and entertainment. In 2015, Cedar Holdings 'operating income remained at 59.3 billion yuan, and soared to 157 billion yuan in 2016, ranking first among private enterprises in Guangzhou. In 2017, Cedar Holdings 'revenue continued to grow rapidly, reaching 221 billion yuan. In July 2018, Cedar Holdings ranked among the "World's Top 500" and has been on the list for four consecutive years since then. Among them, Zhang Jin, founder of Cedar Holdings, was admitted to the Department of Finance of Shenzhen University at the age of 18 and completed the accumulation of original funds from the stock and securities market. At the age of 26, he founded his own real estate company and founded Cedar Holdings.

However, in recent years, Cedar Holdings, which has the aura of "Fortune 500", has repeatedly exposed incidents such as "self-integration" and "suspected illegal fund-raising", which has attracted widespread attention from the outside world.

According to a previous report by the Securities Times, the reporter's investigation found that since January 2020, under the cover of "supply chain finance", under the guise of "supply chain finance", more than 350 illegal "wealth management products" were sold to natural persons under the guise of various gold exchanges, property exchanges, and fake gold exchange channels, with a total scale of over 20 billion yuan. Since then, the redemption of these wealth management products has stalled.

According to a reporter's investigation, behind these more than 350 wealth management products, a huge financing network has been built, involving as many as 63 companies. In addition to overt or covert cedar companies, there are also a large number of fake central enterprises and pseudo-state-owned enterprises. Accounts receivable, which are underlying assets, are based on suspected false "idle" trade practices.

On May 7, 2023, the Huangpu District Branch of the Guangzhou City Public Security Bureau issued the "Notice on the Case of Guangdong Yuanfang Investment Co., Ltd. and Others Suspected of Illegal Absorption of Public Deposits", filing a case for investigation and punishment against Guangdong Yuanfang Investment Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Cedar Holding Group Co., Ltd. and others suspected of illegally absorbing public deposits.

The "Notice" disclosed that the public security organs have taken criminal coercive measures against the main criminal suspect Zhang and others; have extracted relevant data involved in the case in accordance with the law, and have entrusted professional institutions to conduct independent appraisal and judicial audits; and have sealed up, seized and frozen the relevant assets involved in the case; Urged relevant responsible personnel of the company involved in the case to actively cooperate with the investigation and actively refund illegal income. Those who voluntarily surrender, return stolen goods and compensation, or plead guilty to repentance can be given a lighter punishment in accordance with the law; investors can report the case and register with written materials such as their identity certificate, contract agreement, bank transaction details, receipt and payment vouchers.

According to a previous report by the Securities Times, the case was jointly investigated by the Economic Investigation Detachment of the Guangzhou City Public Security Bureau under the guidance of the Economic Investigation Detachment of the Huangpu District. A person close to the Guangzhou Economic Investigation Bureau revealed that Yuanfang Investment disclosed in the above notice is only one of the representatives of the companies involved in the case."Many of the affiliated companies involved in the case cannot be listed one by one, so they are referred to as 'Yuanfang Investment and other companys'." In addition, he also revealed that the "Zhang" in the announcement is Zhang Jin, the actual controller of Cedar Holdings.

According to Caixin's report in July 2024, the Guangzhou City Procuratorate accused Cedar Holdings and its subsidiaries of suspected fund-raising fraud and illegal absorption of public deposits, and has filed public prosecutions against the company and certain management personnel. An investor familiar with the case revealed that prosecutors believe that Cedar Holdings is suspected of committing a crime by its unit, and that some senior executives also need to bear criminal responsibility. There may be dozens of management personnel involved in the case.