Indonesian immigration officials announced on Thursday (October 10) that they had arrested a Chinese man wanted by Beijing in the tourist destination of Bali. The man, identified by his initials L.Q., is 39 years old. He is suspected of assisting others in defrauding Chinese clients in investments, involving an amount exceeding 100 billion Chinese yuan (approximately 14 billion US dollars). Chinese media Caixin confirmed that this individual is Lin Qiang, the fugitive controller of the “Hehe Group.”
Silmy Karim, the Director of Immigration at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights, held a press conference on October 10 in Jakarta. L.Q. appeared in an orange detainee shirt, wearing a mask, and did not make any statements or answer any questions from the media.
L.Q. was arrested on October 1 at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali while attempting to travel to Singapore and was denied departure by the immigration system. The airport’s biometric data system identified L.Q. as a wanted suspect by Beijing, and he has been on Interpol’s wanted list since the end of September.
Indonesian authorities still need time to decide whether to deport the suspect or extradite him to China.
According to a report on Caixin on October 11, Lin Qiang, the fugitive controller of the “Hehe Group,” has been on the run for 13 months and was identified and captured in Bali, Indonesia while entering and exiting the country under an alias. This news was publicly announced by the Indonesian Immigration Office and Indonesian police on October 10, 2024.
Public records show that before Lin Qiang went into hiding, the “Hehe Group” he controlled included Shanghai Hehe Shouchuang Investment Management Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Hehe Shouchuang”) and its subsidiary Hehe Asset Management Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Hehe Asset Management”), a licensed institution for futures trading.
The “Hehe Group” raised funds exceeding one trillion yuan, involving investments from 50,000 individuals.
Lin Qiang fled on August 28, 2023. By April 9 of this year, Hehe Shouchuang issued a public announcement stating that the company and related enterprises were heavily indebted, facing significant business risks, and unable to make payments. The unpaid amount of funds by Hehe Shouchuang could exceed 4.5 billion yuan. Several Chinese media outlets reported at the time that the entire family of the company’s controller had immigrated to Singapore and transferred funds abroad through underground banks.
On April 10, the Yangpu Sub-Bureau of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau issued a notice stating that a criminal investigation had been launched into the “Hehe Group” for suspected illegal fundraising activities, leading to criminal measures against several suspects.
Lin Qiang, aged 39, graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Hehe Asset Management was established on November 18, 2015, with Wang Hongliang as the legal representative and a registered capital of 160 million yuan, serving as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hehe Futures. Wang Hongliang is a figurehead, with Lin Qiang remaining the true controller behind the scenes.
According to Caixin, individuals implicated in the illegal fundraising activities of the “Hehe Group” include Lin Qiang’s secretary Zhang Chun, risk control officer Zhang Zhenjie, deputy general manager of Hehe Asset Management Cao Wei, financial director Liang Zhiming, and Ye Gang. Among them, Liang Zhiming is Lin Qiang’s hair, and Ye Gang is the financial director of Shanghai Zhenji Traffic Equipment Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the state-owned enterprise China Railway.
The report mentioned that Lin Qiang’s direct reason for fleeing was due to his later shift towards investing in distressed debt of urban investment platforms. After years of operating in real estate, P2P lending, bills, and urban investment bonds, the holes in his operations became irreparable. With the impact of the near-collapse of China’s four major wealth groups involving nearly a trillion yuan, the financial chain of the “Hehe Group” tightened significantly, forcing his eventual escape.