Tag: Nanjing District Attorney

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.

Records Reveal Different Picture of Founders Group International

When Nick Dou filed a lawsuit against Dan Liu and three Chinese corporations last week, he brought to light much more than one Chinese partner of Founders Group International, LLC suing other Chinese partners.

According to the lawsuit, Dou owns 10 percent of approximately 16 LLCs with one or more of three Chinese corporations owning the other 90 percent of each LLC. The parties primarily conducted business locally as Founders Group International, LLC.

Dan Liu appears not to have a direct ownership interest in any of the 16 LLCs, but rather acts as exclusive U.S. business agent for the three Chinese Corporations.

However, further research on business transactions involving one or more of the LLCs as well as the three Chinese corporations revealed that Liu now appears to hold mortgages on virtually all of the collective Founders Group International, LLC golf courses and development property in Horry and Georgetown counties.

Between February 2017 and May 2017, well over $100 million in promissory notes and mortgages were transferred to Dan Liu in a series of approximately 25 transactions recorded in Horry County.

Seventeen of the recorded transactions assigned promissory notes and mortgages from one or more of the three Chinese corporations for which Liu allegedly acted as exclusive U.S. agent to Liu. Papers for eleven of the transfers to Liu were signed on February 3, 2017 and recorded on February 10, 2017 and papers for the remaining six transfers were signed on April 28, 2017 and recorded on May 25, 2017.

The remaining transactions were preliminary assignment of promissory notes and mortgages so they could ultimately be assigned to Liu.