Author: Shu Ye, Financial Gossip Girl

The latest news has made many people applaud.

On the evening of August 20th, with the strong assistance of relevant departments in China, the Chinese Embassy in Thailand, and Thai law enforcement agencies, the "Operation Fox Hunt" working group of the Ministry of Public Security successfully extradited Zhang, a major economic crime suspect who is alleged to have organized and led pyramid selling activities, from Thailand to China.

This case marks the first extradition of an economic crime suspect from Thailand to China since the extradition treaty between China and Thailand took effect in 1999.

Who is this Zhang? What did he do?

Do you remember the head of the MBI group, Zhang Yufa, who absconded with 500 billion and lived freely in Thailand for many years, swindling millions of people? Sister Baimei has written about him before, and this Zhang is the head of the MBI group, Zhang Yufa.

The MBI group founded by Zhang Yufa conducted a "scam of the century," swindling 500 billion from the Chinese people, and then fled from Malaysia to Thailand, where he became a "monk" in a temple, astonishing many.

During his years in hiding in Thailand, Zhang Yufa lived extravagantly. Not only did he buy a street in the border town of Songkhla, but he also opened a five-star hotel, entertainment venues, an amusement park, and a shopping mall. He also acquired a Thai god elephant statue worth 50 million baht and a Vishnu statue adorned with jewelry worth 50 million baht, showing off his extravagance.

In 2022, Zhang Yufa was arrested in Thailand and the trial lasted for more than 2 years. At that time, China immediately applied for his extradition, but he also committed offenses in Malaysia, and Malaysia also wanted to extradite him. So it took some time to extradite him this time.

The extradition of this suspect, who was involved in hundreds of billions and caused many Chinese people to lose their fortunes, ultimately indicates that no matter how cunning the evildoers are, they will eventually pay the price for their actions.

From fleeing Malaysia to becoming a monk in Thailand, absconding with 500 billion and swindling countless tycoons

Now, the "Chinese giant swindler" Zhang Yufa has finally been extradited back to China. Unexpectedly, the trial lasted for two years.

Zhang Yufa being escorted back to China

As early as July 2022, Zhang Yufa was arrested in Thailand. After being arrested, the Thai authorities detained Zhang Yufa in a local immigration detention center and then transferred him to a detention center in Bangkok. Soon, Thailand will revoke his Thai visa and deport him.

At that time, China saw an opportunity and quickly requested his return based on the extradition treaty between China and Thailand. As early as November 2020, China had issued a red notice through Interpol to hunt him down.

However, Malaysia also wanted to extradite Zhang Yufa and made a request to the Thai authorities.

After all, Zhang Yufa also committed offenses in Malaysia, running a notorious "pyramid scheme" and having his assets frozen because of selling MBI stocks. He was also named by the Malaysian police.

In October 2019, a large-scale protest in the Chinese community shook the entire Chinese-speaking world on the streets of Malaysia.

At that time, hundreds of Chinese people surrounded the Malaysian embassy, kneeling in the rain to demand justice, accusing the investment company MBI of defrauding a huge amount of RMB and demanding that the swindler Zhang Yufa return the money.

There were also rumors of three suspected radical victims who broke into a mansion on Penang Island's Ganmi Mountain with knives, and this mansion happened to be the home of Zhang Yufa's son.

At that time, Zhang Yufa had already absconded with over 500 billion yuan, affecting tens of thousands of people.

After the incident, the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia issued five statements in a row, calling on the companies involved to respond to the demands and urging the victims to "comply with local laws."

What's more, at that time, Zhang Yufa went to the Na Thawi temple in Songkhla, Thailand, to become a monk, claiming to "respect the abbot of the temple" and converted to Buddhism. The former swindler had transformed into a devout Buddhist.

This left the public puzzled and pointed out that becoming a monk could not absolve him of his sins.

Of course, Zhang Yufa did not repent. He saw through the extradition process and communicated with the local court, trying to use the time to find an opportunity to escape extradition.

At the same time, Zhang Yufa also attempted to make a comeback in eastern Thailand. Surprisingly, he succeeded.

During his "fleeing to Thailand" period, Zhang Yufa lived a luxurious life and maintained a boss-like demeanor. He bought an entire street in the border town of Songkhla in southern Thailand and developed hotels, entertainment venues, an amusement park, and a shopping mall, with a total area equivalent to over 200 football fields, worth over 10 billion baht.

After making money, Zhang Yufa also bribed Thai officials, giving money to local officials in exchange for protection, continuing to do business freely. If this incident had not occurred, half of Songkhla would probably have been bought by him.

But the net of heaven is wide and meshes are coarse but nothing escapes. In 2022, Zhang Yufa was arrested in Thailand and awaited trial. It wasn't until May of this year that the Thai court finally decided to send Zhang Yufa to China. In August, Thailand agreed.

Subsequently, staff from the Chinese Embassy in Thailand took Zhang Yufa from the Bangkok prison and brought him to the Bangkok airport, completing all the departure procedures. On August 20th, with the cooperation of various departments in China, the Chinese Embassy in Thailand, and law enforcement agencies, Zhang Yufa was finally brought back from Thailand.

It is worth noting that this is the first time since the China-Thailand extradition treaty took effect in 1999 that China has extradited an economic crime suspect from Thailand.

According to Thai media reports, after receiving the news last month that he would be extradited to China, Zhang Yufa was so worried that he lost 40 kilograms in a month and couldn't eat or sleep.

Now, with the news of Zhang Yufa's extradition, the victims are spreading the word.

Yu Jiafu

On August 21st, lawyer Yu Jiafu held a press conference on behalf of 400 Chinese victims, saying that everyone was very happy to hear that Zhang Yufa would be tried in China. They finally waited for this day.

As early as November 2021, Yu Jiafu announced that he would represent 400 Chinese investors in a civil lawsuit against MBI International Group and Zhang Yufa, accusing them of fraud through financial games and seeking to recover over 100 million yuan in investments.

He also revealed that in June of this year, he specifically sent an email to Thailand inquiring about the extradition, and in August, he received a reply stating that the Thai court had decided to send Zhang Yufa back to China.

Yu Jiafu emphasized that on October 7th of this year, he will represent these 400 victims in continuing the lawsuit in a Kuala Lumpur court, vowing to recover everyone's hard-earned money.

Is there still hope of recovering these hundreds of billions of yuan?

Using virtual currency for pyramid schemes, despite celebrity endorsements and charity events

How did Zhang Yufa manage to swindle 500 billion from the Chinese people with his "magical scam"?

In fact, he was involved in a virtual currency pyramid scheme. In 2015, riding the wave of virtual currency, Zhang Yufa established the "MFC Game Financial Platform" and issued virtual currencies such as E-Points and Hawker Gold. At that time, there were many issuers of virtual currencies, and he focused on packaging one.

To lure people in, Zhang Yufa packaged it as a legitimate company. He first spent a lot of money to win over some former Malaysian officials to serve as company advisors. With official endorsement, the credibility greatly increased.

Then, he also had celebrities endorse it, with celebrities such as Wu Qixian having close ties with Zhang Yufa, and MBI even sponsored Wu Qixian's concert.

In addition, Zhang Yufa also held large charity events. At that time, who would have thought that a philanthropist would be a fraudster?

Wu Qixian (middle) Zhang Yufa (right)

And there was a threshold for buying his currency. His trick was that to become a member of his MBI group ("M Fans"), you had to subscribe to virtual currencies ranging from 700 yuan to 350,000 yuan to receive annual returns ranging from 10% to 200%.

If you develop new members, there are different levels of rewards. Direct referral rewards can receive 6%-10% of the investment amount of the downline members; binary rewards can receive 6%-10% of the membership fees from the left and right zones of the downline members; leadership rewards can receive 4% of the binary rewards of downline members, even up to the sixth level.

MBI claims that its coins are like stocks, but they only rise and never fall. When they reach a certain height, they can start to distribute money and increase the value of the E-Points. As long as the money stays inside, it will continue to double, and the more you buy, the more you earn.

Want to withdraw? You can, but it's a bit slow. Buying ten million only takes a second, but withdrawing ten thousand takes a day. Do you think it's slow? No problem, you can sell your coins to other "M Fans," isn't that faster?

These coins can also be used for consumption at MBI's hotels and shopping malls. Worried that they cannot circulate? Therefore, the treatment of "earning while lying in a regular company" attracted a large number of people to join.

After becoming rich in Malaysia, MBI also extended its reach to China, looking for more "white knights."

In 2012, He Zhenqiu and Gu Xiping joined MBI through Zhang Yufa and brought MBI into China. At that time, He Zhenqiu was called the "Chinese stock god" by his followers, claiming that this model could "force" everyone to become wealthy.

Under this temptation, a large number of fans stayed up all night to "strike it rich" and rushed into Zhang Yufa's trap one after another. MBI also spread like wildfire across the country through word of mouth.

By 2015, the scale of MBI had ballooned to tens of billions, truly becoming one of Malaysia's leading large enterprises.

But to put it plainly, this is a typical "Ponzi scheme," treating the investment of new "leeks" as the profits of old "leeks," attracting a continuous influx of "leeks"…

And these people were all deceived by Zhang Yufa. Some believers said, "He taught us how to invest, and we deeply believed in him, even calling him 'Father Zhang.' In our hearts, he is like a patriarch."

In the MBI fan group, someone once said, "Zhang Yufa's wisdom, even if you had ten thousand brains, you couldn't come up with it. I admire him, I believe in him."

But MBI really screwed them over: some brought MBI "fellow believers" home, leading to the complete breakdown of their marriages; some invested against all advice, even cutting off ties with their children; and some put all their savings into MBI, but in the end, didn't get a single penny back…

In 2015, the Chinese police first exposed Zhang Yufa's scam, identifying MBI as a pyramid scheme. Subsequently, public security agencies in Guangxi, Shanghai, and Sichuan successfully cracked down on multiple MBI large-scale cross-provincial network pyramid selling criminal cases, freezing assets and funds involved totaling over one billion yuan. But investors still firmly believed that MBI was being wrongly accused.

In 2017, China and Malaysia jointly cleaned up MBI. Chinese officials He Zhenqiu, Gu Xiping, and 12 others were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 8 years to 1.5 years and fined amounts ranging from 600,000 to 100,000 yuan for organizing and leading pyramid selling activities by the Xuzhou court.

At the same time, Malaysia launched the "Ops Token" operation to crack down on "pyramid selling" activities, and Zhang Yufa's mansion was searched, over 90 accounts and over one billion in funds were frozen, and he was detained by the police for several days.

The operation was fierce, but in the end, Zhang Yufa was charged with the seemingly trivial offense of "issuing coins without permission," and he was soon released on bail. He transformed himself and joined the World Cryptocurrency Organization (WCO) as an international blockchain angel investor. At that time, many investors still believed that the MBI group was strong enough to weather this difficult period.

In May 2018, according to the Malaysian "Sin Chew Daily," Zhang Yufa was prosecuted by the local court. Prior to this, the Malaysian police headquarters had frozen all of Zhang Yufa's assets in Malaysia and placed him on the high financial risk blacklist. At this point, investors still held onto fantasies about MBI.

It wasn't until 2019 that they couldn't withdraw their money that they realized they had been truly deceived, but it was too late. Many people foolishly handed over a lot of money and still didn't know who Zhang Yufa really was…

"Super Rich" Turned Out to be a Bottom-tier Swindler, Even Buffett Was Badly Deceived by Him?

There are several rumors about Zhang Yufa's identity in the market.

As the man behind the MBI group, Zhang Yufa packaged himself as a "super rich" person, opening high-end consumption places, buying airlines with a lot of money, and building a huge commercial empire in Malaysia.

The MBI group operated a wide range of industries, including real estate, chain supermarkets, online malls, film and television companies, chain apartment hotels, and green homes, with assets totaling hundreds of billions.

Zhang Yufa's background also seemed strong, as he self-proclaimed to be the "cousin of the founding father of Malaysia," and the director of the Malaysian police endorsed his company…

In reality, Zhang Yufa came from an ordinary family, with his ancestral roots in Guangdong Province. He is a third-generation Malaysian Chinese. He started socializing early, selling mobile phones, small appliances, and clothing, but despite most of his life passing, he still hadn't made any money.

It wasn't until 2008, when Zhang Yufa, Zhang Zhihao, and Wang Dongshan opened the "Red Island Coffee" chain store together, with only two or three items on the menu and frequent shortages, how could such a store survive?

But he came up with a shareholder system, claiming that investors could "earn money while drinking coffee."

Here, you only need to pay a few thousand yuan to become a shareholder, and you can receive a large number of consumption vouchers every month. The most important thing is that you can enjoy a 5% return every month, with an annualized return rate of 60%, and you can multiply your investment several times in five years. If you bring people in, you can also receive generous commissions.

Red Island Coffee was once very popular and widespread, but it was actually an "empty shell." Those who paid money to become "shareholders" didn't actually receive any shares, and Zhang Yufa used this money to open more Red Island Coffee chain stores, and then used these coffee shops to attract more people to "invest."

With this concealed pyramid scheme, the shareholders of Red Island Coffee once numbered as many as 3,000, and Zhang Yufa made tens of millions. But not long after, Red Island Coffee collapsed, and Zhang Yufa and his partners were sentenced to prison by the local Malaysian court for fraud.

But by some means, Zhang Yufa was released from prison in less than half a year, and then he began to brew an even bigger conspiracy…

After that, Zhang Yufa and his friend Wang Zihua jointly established a company called "Dream Group." Since it's easy to be "caught" with physical assets, they dabbled in the so-called "light assets" and recognized this cost-free, high-yield pyramid scheme.

And this Wang Zihua was also a tough guy, calling himself a "Datuk," but in reality, he was a runner, taking people to gamble at the casino and taking a cut, and also making money through real estate and stock investments. Even after the collapse, he still falsely claimed to be the "prince" of Perak State in Malaysia.

Later, based on the Dream Group they jointly established, Zhang Yufa founded the MBI group, with the full name of "Malaysia Enbi Group," headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The initial business included the clothing industry, chain hotels, and film and television.

In 2012, Zhang Yufa came into contact with SMI in Hong Kong, a "technology company" mainly focused on games and token market investments, claiming to "let money work for you" and using "game financial management." In this financial game, the actual method was to invest money to develop downlines.

Compared to Zhang Yufa's previous coffee shop, SMI's business model was more mature. They not only had online-based industries such as consumer websites and program development companies, but also various offline industries including games, nail salons, coffee shops, and dietary health.

SMI claimed to be "neither direct selling nor speculation, simply replicating Buffett's financial system." But if Buffett heard this, he would probably be furious.

Not long after, SMI was targeted by the police, so it changed its name to Finnciti, but it was still the same old trick. Seeing SMI going downhill, Zhang Yufa "learned from his experience" and incorporated the SMI system into his own MBI company, and then made a big move with virtual currency…

But in the end, it's all just a "new wine in old bottles" trick. Zhang Yufa was running a pyramid scheme while doing a scam, but the huge bubble was bound to burst. Now, Zhang Yufa has been extradited back to China, awaiting trial under Chinese law. It's just a pity for the deceived investors, with hundreds of billions of yuan at stake!

Investment is risky, especially with so many scammers. You must keep your eyes open and not be blinded by high profits and returns…

Reference:

"Involved in Over a Trillion Yuan! A Major Economic Crime Suspect Extradited from Thailand to China," People's Daily

"The Malaysian Swindler Who Cheated Chinese People out of 500 Billion, Became a Monk in Thailand," ELLEMEN Magazine

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