On September 24, 2002, at the People's Cultural Palace in Pyongyang, Kim Yong-nam, the No. 2 person in North Korea, granted a letter of appointment to Yang Bin, a Chinese businessman of Dutch nationality, appointing him as the chief executive of the Sinuiju Special Administrative Region of North Korea.
Yang Bin solemnly read the oath that had been revised by Kim Chong-il himself: "I have been an orphan since I was a child, and the great General Kim Jong-il entrusted me with a heavy responsibility with kindness like the sea. Under the great care of the general, I will swear to repay him. ”
However, just ten days later, the seemingly beautiful new chief executive was taken away by China, leaving only chicken feathers.
The history of the rich man of the dark horse.
The origin of Yang Bin has always been a mystery.
According to his own words, when he was 5 years old, his parents died and he was orphaned, and his elderly grandmother set up a tea stall to pull him **, and he suffered everything when he was a child.
If you look at Yang Bin's resume in the first half of his life, what people see is a self-improving, excellent and motivated young man.
In 1981, 18-year-old Yang Bin was admitted to the Second Artillery Academy of the Navy, and because of his excellent grades, he stayed in the school to teach; In 1987, at the age of 25, he went to study at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
In the Netherlands, Yang Bin smelled the business opportunity of the market thaw from the disintegration of Eastern Europe, and started the import and export of cotton products, textiles and garments between Eastern Europe, Western Europe and China, and earned the first gold in his life.
In 1993, Yang Bin obtained Dutch citizenship. At this time, he was no longer a poor student who came to study in a foreign country, but an authentic Dutch businessman.
However, Yang's ambitions go far beyond that.
After returning to China, he rented two offices in the Wantong office building outside the Fucheng Gate in Beijing, established the Eurasia Group, and started a greenhouse agricultural products business under the slogan of Dutch high-tech.
Because Yang Bin's packaging ability is too outstanding, many people have been moved by the so-called greenhouse agriculture prospects, and even attracted the attention of some local leaders.
Among them, including Shenyang**.
The local leaders listened to Yang Bin's advocacy of the "classic model of Dutch high-tech agriculture" and provided him with policy reductions and exemptions in income tax, agricultural tax, and most importantly, free land allocation.
In 1996, Yang Bin set up the headquarters of Eurasia Group in Shenyang.
Since then, Eurasia Group has become the core enterprise vigorously promoted by Shenyang, and has obtained nearly 3,300 acres of land in Xiaohan Village free of charge for the establishment of the "Holland Village" with the theme of efficient agriculture, sightseeing agriculture and tourism planned by Yang Bin.
However, it was not until several years later that people suddenly realized that the so-called high-tech agriculture was just a façade, and Yang Bin really aimed at Shenyang's real estate development.
In September 1998, the "Holland Village" broke ground and began large-scale intensive construction, and the residential and villa projects were basically completed.
In July 2001, Eurasian Agriculture was successfully listed in Hong Kong, and Yang Bin will continue to use more than 700 million Hong Kong dollars from ** to buy land and expand Holland Village to more than 6,000 acres.
At the same time, a series of tourism projects have also been launched.
Relying on the "Holland Village", Yang Bin's worth skyrocketed, ranking second among Forbes Chinese mainland entrepreneurs in 2001 with 900 million US dollars, and became famous for a while.
During that time, Boss Yang, every time he went out, there were several luxury Mercedes-Benz front and back.
From domestic to foreign.
After the completion of the "Holland Village", it did not develop in the good direction expected by the villagers of Xiaohan Village.
At the beginning, Yang Bin promised to build an agricultural demonstration area in Xiaohan Village, and made a bold promise to solve the employment of 500 farmers, so that the villagers would not lose their land, but also have jobs, and they could also share dividends.
In fact, on thousands of acres of land, no high-tech industrial park has been created. Nestled up are Dutch-style theme parks, a variety of Dutch windmills, villas, high-end residential areas ......
Obviously, these things can't bring much profit to ordinary villagers.
After entering the new century, the capital chain of the "Holland Village" began to break, and the arrears of the project were as high as several hundred million.
Zhang Huaqiao, head of research at UBS Warburg China, visited Holland Village in late 2001 and quickly noticed that something was wrong. After returning to Hong Kong, Zhang Huaqiao notified 13 international ** managers to immediately sell the ** of Eurasian Agriculture.
On September 19, 2002, Eurasia Agriculture was suspended by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission.
The commercial ** created by Yang Bin was torn off step by step. He began to look abroad, and miraculously found a new backer across the Yalu River.
On January 15, 2001, Kim Chong-il visited China. During a visit to Shanghai's Sunqiao Modern Agricultural Development Zone, the North Korean supreme leader became interested in the flowers and vegetables in the glass greenhouse.
Later, on the way home, Kim Chong-il invited some Dandong leaders to talk in the train car, and learned from them that the largest supplier of glass greenhouse technology in China was a Dutch Chinese named Yang Bin.
In this way, because of the greenhouse and greenhouse, Yang Bin and North Korea came together, and his fate changed.
Beginning in 2002, Yang Bin co-founded the Pyongyang-Eurasia Joint Venture with North Korea, building a glass greenhouse on an agricultural demonstration base not far from the Sun Palace on Pyongyang's Kinsu Mountain.
Since then, he has had frequent contacts with the DPRK and has accompanied farmers and vineyard owners invited from Australia, the Netherlands and other countries to Pyongyang on many occasions.
As he got closer and closer to Kim Jong-il, Yang Bin ushered in the peak of his "political career".
It was only 10 days between becoming the chief executive and being arrested.
On September 27, 2002, 1,700 journalists from around the world crowded into the "Holland Village".
At the press conference, Yang Bin announced the news that shocked the world - North Korea will build a special administrative region in Sinuiju, and he himself will become the first chief executive of the special administrative region.
Sinuiju is one of the largest cities in North Korea and is separated by just a friendship bridge from Dandong in China.
North Korea launched the Sinuiju project in 2002 to create a "special administrative region" with an independent judiciary and economic system, somewhat similar to Hong Kong in China.
At the press conference, Yang Bin directly declared to **: "I am Kim Jong-il's adopted son."
Ironically, however, the aura of "Kim Jong-il's adopted son" is not easy to use in China.
On October 4, 2002, Yang Bin was arrested by China ** on charges of fraud, falsification of accounts, and bribery.
Maybe it was fate that made people, and at the most beautiful moment, he fell to the bottom and ushered in the bleakest ending.
From being appointed as the chief executive of Sinuiju in North Korea to being arraigned by China, only about 10 days before and after, Yang Bin's businessman journey and politician's dream came to naught.
On July 14, 2003, the Shenyang Intermediate People's Court issued a first-instance verdict: Yang Bin was sentenced to 18 years in prison for "six crimes", and began a long prison career.
After he was imprisoned, all the aura that had once shrouded his head fell to the ground.
The Second Artillery Academy of the Navy and Leiden University in the Netherlands have successively cracked down on fakes, saying that there is no Yang Bin in the school; A Dutch student told reporters: "I heard that he did not obtain Dutch nationality through formal channels, but betrayed his dignity as a Chinese." ”
There are also Dutch Chinese who broke the news that when Yang Bin claimed that he made a fortune in his early years, his wife and children were actually still receiving ** relief money from the Netherlands.
That is to say, the Navy graduates are fake, the study abroad experience is fake, and even the title of the wealthy Dutch businessman is made up by himself.
From start to finish, this person is likely to be a complete **.
I saw him rise up a tall building, and I saw him collapse.
North Korea quickly revoked Yang's appointment; The huge "Holland Village" fell into a protracted dead silence and became the largest unfinished building in Shenyang; The precious phalaenopsis orchids in the greenhouse all died overnight because there was no heating; Experts specially invited from the Netherlands also stepped on the plane back to China.
On September 26, 2016, after 14 years in prison, Yang Bin, the former richest man, was released from prison ahead of schedule.
He returned to Shenyang and went to the former "Holland Village", which has been transformed into a real estate super ** Zhonghai City.
Yang Bin stood on the side of the road with mixed feelings.
From the end of the 90s of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century, in just a few years, he completed the journey from making a fortune to being imprisoned, vividly showing the glory and desperation of an opportunist.