The Shanghai Municipal People's Procuratorate has charged
property tycoon Zhou Zhengyi with misappropriation of funds,
bribery and forging VAT receipts, a procuratorate source said on
Friday.
Zhou, former president of Shanghai-based property firm Nongkai
Development Group, was released from prison in May 2006 after
completing a three-year sentence for fraud and manipulating the
stock market.
But five months later, in October, Zhou was detained as
prosecutors investigated the Shanghai social security fund
scandal.
Shanghai courts began to hear cases of officials involved in the
Shanghai social security fund scandal in June.
The second division of Shanghai Municipal People's Procuratorate
charged Zhou at the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, the
procuratorate source said.
However, the source did not give further details on the
charges.
Zhou, 45, also known as Chau Ching-ngai, started business as a
teenager in a wonton noodle shop. In 2002, Forbes estimated Zhou's
wealth at about 320 million U.S. dollars.
Earlier this month, four prison officials in Shanghai were
jailed for taking bribes and providing preferential treatment to
Zhou during his incarceration.
Shanghai's social security fund scandal was exposed to the
public last year, with 3.7 billion yuan involved.
Investigators found the money had been illegally loaned, by a
company of the municipal labor and social security bureau, to
Shanghai Feidian Investment Development Co. Ltd, a company
controlled by business tycoon Zhang Rongkun, number 16 on the
Forbes China Rich List in 2005.
Zhang was the first person arrested in the Shanghai social
security fund scandal, which also brought down a number of
high-ranking officials including former Shanghai Party chief Chen
Liangyu.
(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2007)