Chapter 18 Forbes billionaire hates bars

January 25, 2006, from Shuangliu County, Chengdu The People's Procuratorate filed a public prosecution against Wang Dejun, the former chairman of Sichuan Leshan Dongneng Group, the protagonist of the largest bribery case in Sichuan Province since the founding of the People's Republic of China.The prosecution accused Wang Dejun of more than 20 million yuan in bribes, and he was suspected of committing the crime of bribery by a unit, which has involved 6 officials above the county level.Wang Dejun, a plasterer at the beginning, ranked 167th on the Forbes China Mainland Rich List with a net worth of US$98 million in November 2004.

How does a person who has no experience in market operations accumulate wealth quickly? How does he overthrow a series of officials like dominoes? On March 19, 1966, Wang Dejun was born in an ordinary peasant family in Yuelai Township, Tongjiang Town, Central District, Leshan City, Sichuan Province.Because the family was poor, he did not graduate from junior high school, so he learned to be a plasterer, earning a meager monthly income to meet the daily expenses of the family. In May 1988, when Wang Dejun was laying bricks on the construction site of Leshan Shuangjiang Construction Company, he accidentally dropped a brick on the foot of a worker.The worker scolded, "Don't you have eyes? You want to die!" Wang Dejun said, "So what if I hit you?" After speaking, he grabbed a brick and threw it at the worker.The worker yelled angrily: "Why are you arrogant in front of me! If you have the ability, you can become your own boss!" This sentence deeply hurt Wang Dejun. He dropped his work and fled like crazy.He secretly made up his mind: "I can't be a plasterer anymore! I must fight my way!"

For the next month or so, he bit the bullet and wanted to find a better job, but during the interview with the employer, he couldn't talk to the boss for a few words, and the boss let him go. On June 3, 1988, he went to the "Yuquan Liquor Trading Company" located on Binjiang Road, Leshan to apply for the post of salesman.After listening to his self-introduction, the boss said: "Although you can talk, but you used to be a plasterer, we can't have you, or it will affect our company's image!" Wang Dejun said harshly when he heard this: " What does it matter how much money you have? I will definitely be richer than you in the future!" After speaking, Wang Dejun slammed the door and left.At that moment, he really heard the boss laughing behind him and said: "Go ahead and make your daydreams, the guy whose heart is higher than the sky and life is thinner than paper!" Wang Dejun burst into tears.Back home, he shut himself up at home all day, planning the next step.In order to reassure Wang Dejun, his parents let Wang Dejun marry a local girl Zhang Mei in their hometown, and gave birth to their son Wang Shun the next year.Wang Dejun stayed in the poor house for several years, moaning and sighing every day.

In July 1992, his cousin, who had been doing business abroad for many years, visited his house and said to him with a smile: "Xiaojun, although you are not well-educated, you have a flexible mind. Why don't you start a company?" ?” Wang Dejun came alive. "You have worked as a plasterer on the construction site for several years, and at least you know some people. No matter how you do it, you can get a few jobs and make a lot of money!" Wang Dejun was ecstatic when he heard this. He asked eagerly, "What are the conditions for starting a company?" My cousin said, "It takes at least 100,000 yuan to register a company."

Wang Dejun was discouraged all of a sudden: "100,000 yuan? Doesn't it kill me? I can't earn 100,000 yuan in my life as a plasterer!" My cousin said, "You don't understand the principle that money makes money? With 100,000 yuan, As long as you can operate it, it will become 1 million or more!" Wang Dejun is eager to try.In the end, he decided to put all his eggs in one basket. Regardless of his family's opposition, he went around looking for relatives to borrow money, and mortgaged his house as a loan, and collected 100,000 yuan. He soon established a company called "Yuelai Construction" in Leshan City. He was both the boss and the worker, and went out every day to get projects.In the first few months, he almost broke his legs, scratched his mouth, and failed to get a decent project.Later, I finally took on some jobs that other construction companies were not willing to take on, but the money I earned was not enough to maintain the daily operation of the company.He struggled to find the reasons for his failure, and later realized that he had lost in culture.So, while running the company, he enrolled in Southwest Jiaotong University majoring in civil construction.But with only a junior high school education, it is very difficult for him to learn. He often applies some cases learned in class to his own company mechanically, and makes a lot of jokes.Instead of improving, the company has become more difficult.Wang Dejun, who is very strong by nature, was reluctant to let go, so he persisted.He often fell into deep confusion: "Am I destined to be a plasterer in my life?"

On September 16, 1994, shortly after the construction of the Chengle Expressway with a total length of 126.5 kilometers and a total investment of 3.156 billion yuan started, Li Yushu was promoted to the director of the Leshan City Transportation Bureau.Li Yushu, who was born in Ziyang, Sichuan, was assigned to Leshan West Asia Machinery Factory after graduating from university in 1980. In 1985, when he was under 30 years old, he was appointed as the deputy head of Wutongqiao District of Leshan City. After 1993, he was promoted to the head of the district and deputy secretary of the district committee.Wang Dejun is his nephew.

In fact, before that, Wang Dejun also approached Li Yushu many times, but every time he was reprimanded by Li Yushu.Wang Dejun thought to himself: Li Yushu didn't help him before because he didn't have power in his hands, but now it's different, his company is originally engaged in construction, and it's not illegal to take a few jobs.But at this time, Wang Dejun's company does not have the qualifications to contract expressways at all, so what should we do? On the evening of July 15, 1995, in the name of congratulating Li Yushu on his promotion, Wang Dejun invited Li Yushu to the Leshan Restaurant, and said bluntly: "This is such a big Chengle Expressway project, and my company is engaged in construction. I hope Uncle Can you get me a few jobs! Otherwise, the company will go bankrupt!" Li Yushu said with displeasure: "The construction of expressways is a major issue that affects the national economy and the people's livelihood. No one can specialize! Let alone your company I don’t have this strength at all!” Wang Dejun said: “If I don’t get a big project, the company’s economic benefits will not increase, and I will never have strength! As long as the company develops, I will definitely not treat you badly!” After dinner, Wang Dejun pulled Li Yushu to sing in Song City. After drinking a few bottles of wine, Li Yushu deliberately asked the singing lady a question in order to hint to Wang Dejun: "A friend asked you to buy a bicycle, and only you can buy it. Because you have a certain amount of power. But your friend only gives you 180 yuan to buy a car, how do you make money?” The lady couldn’t answer, so Li Yushu told the lady in a mysterious way: “Go and develop a second company that wants to buy a car. People, you have another 180 yuan, you take out 180 yuan to buy a car for the first person, and then you go to develop the third one, so that you always have 180 yuan in your hand, and so on to develop 1,000, your money will be very It’s impressive, and you can do a lot of business.” Wang Dejun immediately understood, and performed this "empty glove white wolf" trick to the extreme.Gradually, Li Yushu recognized Wang Dejun.

Through Li Yushu, Wang Dejun won many projects on the Chengle Expressway, made a lot of money, and the company grew stronger day by day.However, he is not satisfied with the status quo because of his strong nature, and has been involved in more than ten fields such as furniture, building materials, housing development, hotel management, electricity, property, commerce, recycling of renewable resources, and urban water supply and drainage. In August 2000, Wang Dejun changed the company's name to "Leshan Dongneng Group Co., Ltd.", becoming the only large-scale enterprise in Leshan City that was approved to register with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce at that time.

Wang Dejun is well versed in "the way of giving bribes". On March 19, 2001, Wang Dejun invited several civil servants to dinner.After the meal, several people went to play cards again. Wang Dejun distributed 2,000 yuan to each of them as gambling funds, and said generously: "Everyone can play with confidence! Whoever loses, just ask me to get it." That night, a civil servant lost He paid 20,000 yuan, and Wang Dejun rushed to give it all.The next day, Wang Dejun called to meet the civil servant and said, "Help me get the land in Mingdu Garden!"The civil servant refused, so Wang Dejun threw out a videotape and said, "This is the video of you playing cards that night. Do you think it was handed over to the procuratorate?" The civil servant turned pale, and soon resigned and left.

Due to the special relationship, Li Yushu trusted Wang Dejun very much, and the two of them worked hand in hand.Wang Dejun became Li Yushu's "confidant". According to Li Yushu's arrangement, he helped Li Yushu "launder" a lot of money. After getting hold of the big fish Li Yushu, Wang Dejun won the state-owned legal person shares of Daduhe Electric Power Co., Ltd. in Ebian County at a price of 109.2 million yuan.Although there was no secret operation in this auction, Wang Dejun privately "discussed" with Liu Yucheng, then county magistrate, in order to raise a huge sum of money to pay off his debts shortly afterwards.Liu Yucheng approved a loan of 38 million yuan to Dongneng Group in violation of regulations.Later, Wang Dejun gave Liu Yucheng 500,000 yuan as "benefit fee" in four installments.

Prior to this, Wang Dejun had targeted the Qianwei County Electric Power Company long ago and started to act. In March 2001, Li Yushu personally took Wang Dejun to Qianwei County, where he approached Yang Guoyou, the county magistrate, to discuss the purchase of state-owned shares in the county power company.Yang said: "I can't decide this matter, I have to discuss it with Secretary Tian!" So, through Li Yushu's "special" relationship, Wang Dejun got acquainted with Qianwei County Party Secretary Tian Yufei.Wang Dejun said straight to the point: "After the matter is completed, I will give you 1.5 million thank you fees!" Tian Yufei thought of the state-owned enterprise reform plan he was implementing, and quietly agreed.Therefore, when Tian Yufei asked for a car for the first time, Wang Dejun quickly presented an Audi car worth more than 400,000 yuan; In the trunk of Tian Yufei's car.The two parties reached a tacit agreement and left without saying a word... Later, Wang gave Tian a 300-square-meter high-rise apartment on the 15th floor of Mingdu Garden located at the intersection of Fenghuang Road in Leshan City.What Wang Dejun gave Tian Yufei was not only the house, but also the decoration.After installing the house for the first time, Tian Yufei was not satisfied.Wang Dejun renovated it once, and Tian Yufei lived in happily.These two renovations cost millions of dollars! What needs to be clarified is that on June 12, 2001, Li Yushu's Dongchuang incident was discovered, and the Sichuan Provincial People's Procuratorate filed a case for investigation and was criminally detained.Taking advantage of his position, Li Yushu accepted the entrustment of 5 companies and a self-employed business owner, extorting and illegally accepting a total of RMB 8.9389 million in property from others.In addition, during the investigation of the case, the procuratorate seized and froze his assets totaling RMB 11.85 million and USD 91,000 according to the law. After investigation, 3.196 million of them and USD 91,000 could not be explained legally. On January 15, 2002, after the trial, the Chengdu Intermediate People's Court made the first-instance verdict on the Li Yushu case, the largest personal corruption and bribery case since the founding of the People's Republic of China in Sichuan Province: Li Yushu was sentenced to death for the crime of accepting bribes and the crime of unknown sources of huge amounts of property , deprived of political rights for life, and confiscated all personal property. On October 14, 2003, Li Yushu was executed by lethal injection. More than two years after 2001, Wang Dejun was terrified by the Li Yushu case, and he restrained himself from bribery and money collection.He was very scared at the beginning of his uncle's case, but after the case, he found nothing wrong, and Wang Dejun became more courageous afterward. On March 13, 2003, Wang Dejun arranged for the company's staff to transfer 32,842,045 of Qiandian's repurchased individual shares at 0.4 yuan per share to Guanping at the Leshan Property Rights Exchange Center.Accordingly, Guanping possessed shares worth RMB 13,136,819.60. This state-owned equity transfer did not carry out bidding and bidding according to the regulations at all, and it was crowned with many honors such as "Top 100 Best Industrial Enterprises in Sichuan", "Top 100 Largest Industrial Enterprises in Sichuan Province", "Top 500 Largest Taxpayers in Sichuan Industrial Enterprises" and so on. Chuanqian Power was finally acquired by Dongneng Group at a price of 40 million yuan.And this transaction was after the State Council issued a document to stop the transfer of state-owned assets of electric power.Tian Yufei "resisted the pressure" and held a meeting overnight to discuss countermeasures. On November 27, 2002, he sold "Qianwei Power" with a total asset of 460 million yuan and a net asset of 190 million yuan to Wang Dejun for only 40 million yuan. Dongneng Group Corporation.Wang Dejun's net worth soared by 400 million yuan overnight!In advance, someone offered 80 million yuan, and another company offered 100 million yuan or more to buy "Qianwei Electric Power", but Tian Yufei, who was then secretary of the Qianwei County Party Committee, vetoed it. After acquiring Chuanqian Power at a low price, Wang Dejun's net worth soared overnight. In May 2004, "New Fortune Rolls-Royce 500 Rich List" was published by "New Fortune" magazine.Wang Dejun ranked 141st with a total wealth of 1.1 billion yuan, and the "Leshan hydropower tycoon" entered the public's sight for the first time. On November 4, 2004, the 2004 Forbes Mainland Rich List was launched in Beijing.This time, Wang Dejun ranked 167th on the rich list with a net worth of US$98 million. "Leshan Wang Dejun" became a household name in Sichuan. At this time, Dongneng Group has developed into a diversified private enterprise group with hydropower, media, and real estate as its main business, with a total asset of 2.7 billion yuan and 3,000 employees.Just as the group was striving hard to "realize the strategic goals of 'top 100 private enterprises in China' and 'top 10 power companies in China'", something happened. The bid was more than double or even several times, but the bid was not bought. Of course, the competitors were not satisfied, and some employees of Chuanqian Power were also very dissatisfied, so the multiple parties filed a lawsuit, which aroused great attention from the relevant departments. On December 24, 2004, the Sichuan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Leshan Municipal Commission for Disciplinary Inspection, and the Organization Department of the Leshan Municipal Party Committee went to Qianwei County to urgently convene a meeting of leading cadres above the county bureau level. At the meeting, relevant leaders announced the Sichuan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection's decision to implement "double regulation" and file a case for investigation against County Party Secretary Tian Yufei on the grounds that he was suspected of huge amounts of corruption and bribery.At the same time, Tian Yufei was announced to be removed from the post of secretary of the county party committee, and the post of director of the standing committee of the county people's congress was also proposed to be removed according to normal procedures. At this time, Wang Dejun, who was studying in Beijing, was in a state of panic all day long. On December 20, 2004, members of the special task force of the Sichuan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection flew to Beijing in an emergency and "invited" Wang Dejun, who was studying for an EMBA at the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University, back.At the same time, the provincial procuratorate decided to investigate Wang Dejun on suspicion of bribery, and reported to the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Ebian Yi Autonomous County, Sichuan Province for approval, and criminally detained Wang Dejun, who is a representative of the National People's Congress.On December 31 of the same year, Wang Dejun was arrested and sent to the Xindu District Detention Center of Chengdu City on suspicion of bribing millions of yuan to Tian Yufei, the former secretary of the Qianwei County Party Committee of Leshan City, Sichuan Province, and illegally embezzling a huge amount of state-owned assets. On January 20, 2005, the judicial authority of Sichuan Province froze some accounts of Wang Dejun's Dongneng Group and its subsidiary Dongneng Real Estate and other companies. Inside the iron window, Wang Dejun firmly grasped the iron railing with both hands, looking at the dark sky.Right now, he has plenty of time to slowly "taste" the bitter wine he brews.During the days of captivity, Wang Dejun kept repeating a sentence to the guarding police: "Indifference leads to clear ambition, and tranquility leads to long-term goals. The biggest mistake in my beautiful life journey is that I should look back after my uncle Li Yushu's case. It was money that killed me! Money Sometimes it is a bottomless abyss into which heavenly principles, conscience and shame sink.” Professor Cao Mingde from the School of Law of Southwest University of Political Science and Law said when talking about Wang Dejun’s case: “In an era where knowledge is respected, people are encouraged to work honestly and seize opportunities to realize personal wealth and value appreciation, it is of course a An enviable thing. The whole process of Wang Dejun ascending to Forbes by bribery and then falling from the rich list is not only a tragedy, but also a farce. It can be said that such a bizarre story, in the land of China It happens again and again. Although we have repeatedly reflected, reviewed, and repeatedly repaired the past, we have always fallen into the embarrassing situation of lack of supervision and ineffective measures. Supervision and restrictions at the institutional level are very complicated and very important. Experts have formulated many plans for this purpose. At present, the most important and urgent problem is to keep a close eye on those who hold the power to auction and restructure state-owned assets—some local party and government officials, so that individual corrupt elements cannot do whatever they want. The farce and tragedy of being on the Forbes rich list will never happen again." (Text/Liu Bing Yongqiang Tu Min) With regard to the Wang Dejun case, we cannot look at him as an outsider with an ordinary mentality, because in real life, people like Wang Dejun rely on bribery to realize their personal value and wantonly embezzle state-owned assets to accumulate a large amount of illegal wealth. Not few.Through the Wang Dejun case, we should pay more attention to how to effectively protect and supervise state-owned assets, and prevent such farce and tragedy from happening.