In Zhejiang Province, a wealthy businessman had 400 million yuan embezzled by his core team in an overseas company. This news made headlines on Baidu’s hot search on March 24th, sparking discussions online.
According to a report by Phoenix Finance, at the end of 2023, Zhejiang native wealthy businessman Zhong Renhai established the family office “Panda Enterprise” in Singapore and the affiliated company LFI in 2015, aiming to manage the family wealth and support domestic business in China. Four employees including Shannon were appointed as the core management team in charge of daily operations. Shannon had long served as the sole director of LFI and gained Zhong Renhai’s trust.
However, during the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022, Zhong Renhai, unable to travel frequently to Singapore due to cross-border restrictions, entrusted the daily management of the family office to the four employees, including Shannon. Exploiting remote supervision loopholes, these four gradually took control of core authorities such as financial approval and business operations, using complex methods like forging telegraphic transfer instructions (MT103) and inflating salaries to transfer funds until abnormal audits were exposed by the end of 2023.
In December 2023, Zhong Renhai discovered that the staff had misappropriated funds from LFI and the family office, leading to the dismissal of these four individuals in January 2024.
By the end of January 2024, Zhong Renhai engaged the external legal accounting firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) to conduct an independent investigation into the employees’ alleged misconduct. The investigation was completed on October 25, 2024.
A&M concluded that $55 million (approximately 400 million yuan) was embezzled and wrongly paid from Zhong Renhai or LFI’s bank accounts to the former employees. Subsequently, A&M found substantial evidence of financial misconduct and initiated legal proceedings.
On October 25, 2023, Shannon provided Zhong Renhai with a forged MT103 document indicating a transfer of $22 million (about 160 million yuan) from Singa Wealth to LFI on July 24, 2023. However, this transaction never occurred, and LFI did not receive any funds. Shannon argued that the document was just a “draft” mistakenly sent to Zhong Renhai and claimed that producing MT103 was a common practice to reassure suppliers.
The court documents stated that the defendants had been dishonest in financial matters, particularly the act of forging MT103, demonstrating serious dishonesty and further confirming the risk of asset transfer.
Facing all accusations, the implicated employees continue to deny any wrongdoing as the case undergoes further scrutiny. The Singapore High Court has ordered the global assets of those involved and their related company, Singa Wealth, to be frozen to prevent further asset transfers.
Public records show that Zhong Renhai is associated with 19 companies, acting as the legal representative for 11 of them. He is also the actual controller of Gengxing Stock, a listed company in the A-share market. However, due to poor industry performance, the company has issued “warnings of possible delisting risk” twice in 2025.
In response, netizen “Hsxqt7” commented, “The company’s supervision is too lax, reminding me of Evergrande! The supervision of many companies is truly worrisome!”
“Xiao Ling Slow Jogging Fanatic” also remarked, “A common problem in family businesses, relying on nepotism and personal gain, with opaque responsibilities. It’s strange only if no issues arise. Rely on systems to manage people, not individuals.”