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Auckland businesswoman Elizabeth Zhong was bankrupted by creditors two weeks after she was killed at her home.
Police have yet to make an arrest or press charges in the case. Detectives continue to say little publicly beyond that their homicide investigation, dubbed Operation Attina, is moving forward.
At the time of his death, Zhong’s struggling companies had millions in the red for various creditors.
Several of his wine and film companies were in suspension of payments or liquidation.
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Two creditors filed bankruptcy against Zhong personally: a residential property investment company called General Growth Group Ltd, and Fang Sun, a major Zhong business partner.
The main creditor to file for more than $ 2 million in debt was General Growth Group, while Sun was a supporting creditor that had joined the action.
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Elizabeth (Ying) Zhong was murdered at her home in late November.
Associate Judge Dani Lee Gardiner heard the case in Auckland High Court on Tuesday morning.
Auckland attorney Robert Hucker appeared for General Growth Group, while Chapman Tripp’s senior associate Janko Marcetic represented Sun.
Hucker acknowledged the “rather tragic circumstances [in] regarding this matter, ”but said his instructions should continue.
The only property Zhong owned when he died was his home in Sunnyhills, in Auckland’s eastern suburbs, he said. The house was his remaining security against the debt.
Zhong was stabbed to death in the house sometime between the afternoon of Friday, November 27, and the morning of the following Saturday. His body was hidden in his car which was driven around the corner and abandoned.
Hucker said the $ 2 million principal debt at the center of the proceedings had increased due to interest payments on the loan.
STUFF
Acting Detective Inspector Shaun Vickers says Manukau County Police continue to investigate the circumstances of Elizabeth Zhong’s death.
The debt was of such magnitude that even if his home were sold, there would still be a shortfall for a secured creditor, he said.
No lawyer for Zhong was present at the hearing. Nobody came forward from the public platform when Judge Gardiner asked the representatives of the businesswoman to make themselves known.
Judge Gardiner sentenced Zhong to bankruptcy at 10:24 a.m. and ordered the payment of approximately $ 3,300 costs and $ 1,000 disbursements.
Hucker and Marcetic declined to comment on behalf of their clients when approached Stuff after the hearing.
General Growth Group is listed in the Business Register as a residential investment property company. Nan Yi is the sole director and shareholder.
RICKY WILSON / Stuff
There are flowers outside Elizabeth Zhong’s home in Suzetta Place, which underwent an intensive examination of the scene the week after her death.
Auckland attorney Tony Johnson, a partner at Martelli McKegg, said there is nothing extraordinary about bankruptcy proceedings continuing after someone’s death as creditors tried to recoup their losses from a deceased estate.
“Whether someone is dead or not, their estate is bankrupt.
“It is not as unusual as you might think. What is unusual is the timing here. “
People close to Zhong before his death have said that he faced debts significantly greater than the $ 2 million related to his companies.
Sun, which has not responded to repeated requests for comment from Stuff Through his lawyers, he was one of the creditors who are plaintiffs in an ongoing legal battle with Zhong and several of his companies.
Creditors claim that Zhong owed $ 10 million to a company that is among the plaintiffs.
After obtaining an order allowing access to the accounting records of Sunbow, one of Zhong’s firms, the plaintiffs identified what they viewed as “large misappropriations” on the order of $ 4.5 million of Sunbow money, according to the ruling.
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Elizabeth Zhong, photographed in 2016 at her Carrick Winery vineyard in Bannockburn, downtown Otago.
The defendants are Zhong and his winemaking and film effects companies, including Carrick Wines in Central Otago and Digipost, which he bought in 2017.
Zhong’s motion picture effects company Digipost, which had been in operation since the early 1990s, was bought by her in 2017 with a large sum from a foreign financier unknown to the accountant who handled the sale, Matthew Bellingham.
Among the creditors listed for Zhong in the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) is the Quzhou 3D Television and Film Culture Industry Fund Management Center (Limited Company). Quzhou is a city of 2.5 million people in eastern China.
Information on the Chinese company Aiqicha’s registration site shows that Quzhou 3D is legally represented by another company, Beijing 3D Film and Television Culture Industry Fund Management Ltd, which has Fang Sun listed as CEO.
Detective Inspector Shaun Vickers said in a brief statement Monday that police spent the weekend “continuing to advance the ongoing lines of investigation.”
He declined to comment on specific questions raised by Stuff regarding the progress of the investigation, citing operational sensitivity.
