Comedian's wife denies her wealth is ill-gotten

HU Jie, the wife of Zhou Libo, famous Shanghai stand-up comedian, denied her wealth was related to ill-gotten assets obtained by her ex-husband, who surrendered himself to police for alleged corruption and embezzlement. The case has attracted attention in Shanghai because of Zhou, once considered a rescuer and representative of Shanghai culture and recently described to be a gold digger after marrying the wealthy Hu last December. Hu, a native of Wenzhou City in Zhejiang Province, divorced Yang Shenghua, former driver and henchman of corrupt Wenzhou government official Yang Xiuzhu, in May 2010. The corruption case is still under investigation. The Wenzhou government said in 2004 that the amount of money involved was about 253 million yuan (US$ 39.3 million). It was said the official Yang asked Yang Shenghua to handle her properties in Shanghai and Hangzhou before fleeing abroad with her daughter and son-in-law. Yang Shenghua was also once appointed general manager of two state-owned enterprises using his connections with Yang Xiuzhu. Yang Shenghua allegedly turned SOEs private by forging documents, falsely claiming registered capital and other illegal means, according to the Qianjiang Evening News. Hu's profile rose His ex-wife, Hu, stepped into the spotlight after marrying comedian Zhou. Zhou's ex-wife made a stir in 2009, before divorcing Zhou, saying that the comedian was dating a rich businesswoman from Wenzhou as she suffered a serious illness in the hospital. Hu owned a leading stainless steel factory in Wenzhou at the time, while married to Yang Shenghua. Hu has given up her career. Rumors said Hu's wealth was related to the ill-gotten assets obtained by her ex-husband, but Hu denied the allegations, the report said. Yang Xiuzhu, the corrupt official, was former director of the urban planning authority, deputy director of the construction authority and vice mayor of Wenzhou. She fled overseas in April 2004 and was arrested in the Netherlands in May 2005. Yang Shenghua also escaped overseas but ret! urned an d gave himself up to police at the end of June. He was charged on July 21 with corruption and embezzlement.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

40,000 hairy crabs released in Yangtze

Image
THE city government yesterday freed 40,000 hairy crabs into the mouth of Yangtze River near the Qingcaosha Reservoir, the first step in a five-year campaign to repair the ecosystem to improve the water quality in the reservoir that provides tap water for millions of residents. The hairy crabs will help establish a complete food chain in the river to help more fish and other aquatic animals survive in the river, Zhuang Ping, deputy director of the East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, told Shanghai Daily yesterday. The released crabs, about half female and half male, will eat plankton while some of their offspring will become food for meat-eating fish higher in the food chain, said Zhuang, who is leading the water-improvement program. "The better ecosystem the water has, the better its water quality will be," he said. With a capacity of 438 million cubic meters, the reservoir is providing tap water to about 10 million
Keep reading

Shanghai port consolidates its position as world's busiest

Image
SHANGHAI, the world's busiest container port, will consolidate its title this year and leverage its record throughput to become a multi-faceted provider of port services. The city, which overtook Singapore as the world's biggest container handler last year, saw its annual container traffic volume surpass 30 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) yesterday. The figure hits an unprecedented level in the world's port history and marks a new leg in Shanghai's voyage to become a global shipping center by 2020. China's remarkable trade boom is reflected in the Shanghai port numbers, which went from 7,951 TEUs in 1978 to 29.05 million TEUs in 2010. The city's customs oversaw a total of US$790 billion worth of imports and exports in the first three quarters of this year - a 19.3 percent year-on-year increase. And its port handled 23.9 million TEUs over the first 10 months, ahead of that of 23.56 million TEUs at Singapore Port. Shanghai International Port (Group) Co,
Keep reading

Praise, scorn for teacher's odd command

Image
A middle school math teacher has stirred controversy after forcing 20 of his students to slap their own faces for three minutes because they made noise in class and scored poorly on exams. Angry local residents are demanding that the teacher resign and asking the school to announce a punishment. But some of the teacher's students, including some who were forced to slap themselves, are calling for leniency. The incident occurred in a class at Donglu Middle School in Pudong on Tuesday when the math teacher surnamed Yang ordered 20 students in his class to slap their faces after he was irritated by them making noise in class. The students said Yang was known as a very strict teacher, so almost all the students obeyed his order and started slapping themselves in the face for about three minutes. Those who slapped too lightly were told by the teacher to slap harder, students told the Oriental Morning Post. Yang's behavior has sparked anger among local residents, especially so
Keep reading