Tag: Easy Richness

Yiqian Investors Suing Dan Liu and Founders Group Entities

Investors bilked out of over $1.1 billion are pursuing a class action lawsuit in federal court against Founders Group International, its associated LLC’s and principal owner Dan Liu.

The lead plaintiffs in the case are Xunhui Cheng, a citizen of the Peoples Republic of China, and Kelan Cai, a citizen of the United States.

Background for this lawsuit is provided below:

Liu, a native of the Peoples Republic of China, first appeared in 2014 buying up golf courses with apparently unlimited amounts of cash. At the time, Liu was hailed as a potential savior of the golf tourism industry in Horry County.

In the 2014-15 timeframe, Liu and his Founders Group International LLC acquired a total of 22 golf courses, various potential development properties and homes. It is estimated his total expenditure in the Grand Strand area was approximately $140 million.

Liu’s wealth supposedly came from his ownership stake in Yiqian Funding, also marketed as “Easy Richness”, a peer to peer lending business in his native China.

By the time Liu staged his society style wedding at his newly acquired Pine Lakes Country Club clubhouse in April 2015, the event was hailed by local media as the Grand Strand’s “first major step into the overseas tourism market.”

But it was all a con.

Storm clouds began to block out this sunny picture in 2016 when Chinese police began raiding Yiqian Funding offices in China. The picture accompanying this article shows police carrying computers and records out of an “Easy Richness” office in China during one raid.

Liu’s principal partner in Yiqian Funding, Xiuli Xue, an attendee at the Liu wedding in Myrtle Beach, and 11 other high ranking associates in the Yiqian Funding organization were arrested in 2016, Xue in Hong Kong as she was attempting to leave the country.

All 12 were convicted at trial for an “illegal fundraising case” designated as a “Series of Yiqian Events.” by the Nanjing District Attorney for Jiangsu Province in China. They are currently serving prison sentences.

New Insights Into Founders Group International Lawsuit

(Pictured above, Dan Liu (left) and Nick Dou)

Investigation into the lawsuit filed in the 15th Judicial Circuit by Nick Dou against Dan Liu and three Chinese corporations over properties held collectively by Founders Group International continues to bring new revelations to the surface.

According to a source familiar with the lawsuit, Dan Liu was served locally with the lawsuit in recent days.

Liu’s peer to peer lending company, which did business in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) under both its Mandarin name “Yiqian Funding” and its English name “Easy Richness”, raised the money that was used to buy golf courses and other property in Horry and Georgetown counties.

According to records in Horry County, Liu and Dou established approximately 16 limited liability corporations to hold the various properties purchased in Horry and Georgetown counties. Collectively, the llc’s are known locally as Founders Group International.

According to court documents, Dou holds 10 percent interest in Founders Group International and the associated llc’s. The three Chinese corporations, for which Liu acts as exclusive U.S. agent, hold the remaining 90 percent of the llc’s.

According to sources familiar with Yiqian Funding, the company raised a total of approximately 10 billion Yuan ($1.5 billion) from approximately 60,000 investors over a six year period. Estimates are that at least $300 million was taken out of the PRC for investment in the U.S.

Sources with knowledge of Yiqian said what was purchased was not really important to Liu. His main goal was getting the money beyond the borders of the PRC.

For that purpose, Liu established the three Chinese corporations, apparently nothing more than shell corporations, to receive the investor money from Yiqian Funding to use for purchases in the U.S.