Tag: Nick Dou

Indian Wells Rezoning on Tonight’s County Council Agenda – Updated

(above picture Dan Liu, left, and Nick Dou)

UPDATE

Once again first reading of the rezoning ordinance was deferred. 

The same scenario played out as before – opponents of the rezoning showed up in force dressed in their now famous red shirts. Once again council member Tyler Servant blinked and asked for another deferral.

It appears there is no desire on Servant’s part to vote against the rezoning or else it would already been voted down. Council members will generally follow the will of the member in whose district the rezoning is located.

Evidently the tactic is to attempt to wait out the ‘red shirts’ until their opposition wanes. However, that may not be the end result here.

There is a determined opposition and the current owner, Founders Group International, apparently needs the property to be rezoned to clinch its sale. It is not believed that the property can be profitably developed with the residential zoning it has now.

First reading of an ordinance for a proposed rezoning of Indian Wells Golf Club is again on the Horry County Council agenda for tonight.

This is the fourth time the issue has been before council for first reading. It was initially defeated late last year. After some tinkering with the proposal, removing the commercial areas and adding more townhomes in an attempt to appease adjacent property owners, the issue has been deferred twice.

There is considerable opposition from owners in three sub-divisions, who thought they were buying golf course view property over the past 20 years only to discover this is not necessarily the case in Horry County.

All but a few of the golf courses in Horry County have underlying zoning that allows for development of the golf course into residences of some type.

Many of properties in the golf course communities surrounding those golf courses were sold on the basis of ‘fairway views’ or ‘proximity to the course’ of the homes, often with premiums charged for properties directly adjacent to the golf course.

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Proposed Rezoning of Indian Wells Golf Club Raises Many Issues

(pictured above, Dan Liu, left, and Nick Dou)

Horry County Council will again consider first reading of a request to rezone Indian Wells Golf Club for development at its regular meeting next week.

Council has already denied the request once and deferred a changed plan at its last regular council meeting.

Council member Tyler Servant, in whose council District 5 the course is located, has reportedly been working with three homeowner’s associations who will be impacted by the rezoning to get agreement from them for a development plan that has no commercial structures and only townhomes and single family homes.

But, Servant may be missing the forest while concentrating on just one tree. There are more issues at Indian Wells than which development plan can get approval from council.

Indian Wells is one of the golf courses owned by the Founders Group International, a collective of multiple LLC’s with 90% ownership by Chinese companies for which Dan Liu claims to act as exclusive U.S. agent and 10% ownership by Nick Dou, according to documents provided in a lawsuit with Dou as plaintiff and Liu as defendant. According to Liu’s deposition, he met Dou in 2012.

Dou and Liu are currently locked in a legal battle over allegations by Dou that Liu is attempting to strip assets from their corporate interests.

In the 2014-15 timeframe, Founders Group International acquired 22 golf courses, homes and other properties in the Grand Strand area for the total sum of approximately $135 million.

In a deposition for the ongoing lawsuit, Liu claimed the money used for the purchases was taken from his personal funds. However, the deposition included a description from Liu of his work history from the time he left university in 1997. Nothing in that history gave any indication from where Liu would have accumulated such an amount of money.

According to Liu’s statements in the deposition, he placed his personal funds in the above mentioned Chinese companies, with which he claims no association other than being the exclusive U.S. agent, in order to move the funds out of China.

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Dan Liu Fires Back at Founders Group International Partner

(Pictured above, Dan Liu (left) and Nick Dou in happier times)

Dan Liu, majority partner of the Founders Group International entities, fired back hard at minority partner Nick Dou in answering a complaint in a lawsuit filed by Dou against Liu, three Chinese corporations and the many limited liability companies that make up the Founders Group International holdings.

According to Dou’s complaint, the three Chinese corporations were 90 percent owners of the Founders Group properties and Dou was 10 percent owner. Liu was the exclusive authorized agent in the U.S. for the Chinese corporations.

In his lawsuit, Dou alleges Liu was stripping assets out of the corporation for personal and other uses. The suit alleges breach of contract, fraud and conversion by Liu.

Additionally, Dou asks for a full accounting of corporate assets as well as a temporary restraining order directing Liu “shall not divert, remove, alienate, convert, encumber or otherwise manipulate any corporate assets of FGI or any of the other FGI Entities for his personal use or benefit, until such time as the claims raised in this action have either been resolved by this Court, settled and/or withdrawn by the Parties to this action…”

The complaint also states, “Plaintiff Nick Dou is informed and believes that the assets and property of FGI and the affiliated FGI Entities are at grave risk and danger of loss, and of material injury and impairment, at the hands of Defendant Dan Liu, if such property and assets are left under the exclusive control of Defendant Dan Liu.”

Dou’s complaint also states, “Upon information and belief, on or about March 27, 2017, the Nanjing District Attorney’s office for the Jiangsu Province of the PRC issued public statements that it seeks the arrest of Defendant Dan Liu for suspicion of investment fraud and “absorbing public money.”

A copy of this public statement release was submitted as an exhibit with Dou’s complaint.

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New Insights Into Founders Group International Lawsuit

(Pictured above, Dan Liu (left) and Nick Dou)

Investigation into the lawsuit filed in the 15th Judicial Circuit by Nick Dou against Dan Liu and three Chinese corporations over properties held collectively by Founders Group International continues to bring new revelations to the surface.

According to a source familiar with the lawsuit, Dan Liu was served locally with the lawsuit in recent days.

Liu’s peer to peer lending company, which did business in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) under both its Mandarin name “Yiqian Funding” and its English name “Easy Richness”, raised the money that was used to buy golf courses and other property in Horry and Georgetown counties.

According to records in Horry County, Liu and Dou established approximately 16 limited liability corporations to hold the various properties purchased in Horry and Georgetown counties. Collectively, the llc’s are known locally as Founders Group International.

According to court documents, Dou holds 10 percent interest in Founders Group International and the associated llc’s. The three Chinese corporations, for which Liu acts as exclusive U.S. agent, hold the remaining 90 percent of the llc’s.

According to sources familiar with Yiqian Funding, the company raised a total of approximately 10 billion Yuan ($1.5 billion) from approximately 60,000 investors over a six year period. Estimates are that at least $300 million was taken out of the PRC for investment in the U.S.

Sources with knowledge of Yiqian said what was purchased was not really important to Liu. His main goal was getting the money beyond the borders of the PRC.

For that purpose, Liu established the three Chinese corporations, apparently nothing more than shell corporations, to receive the investor money from Yiqian Funding to use for purchases in the U.S.

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Chinese Fireworks Erupt Over Founders Group International, LLC

Fireworks have erupted between the two Chinese principal owners of Founders Group International, LLC (FGI) as Nick Dou, one owner of the corporation, filed suit against Dan Liu, the other owner of the corporation, and three Chinese corporations Liu allegedly acts as exclusive agent for, in 15th Judicial Circuit Court on June 22, 2017.

According to the complaint, case number 2017-CP-2603932, Dou alleges Liu was stripping assets out of the corporation for personal and other uses. The suit alleges breach of contract, fraud and conversion by Liu.

Additionally, Dou asks for a full accounting of corporate assets as well as a temporary restraining order directing Liu “shall not divert, remove, alienate, convert, encumber or otherwise manipulate any corporate assets of FGI or any of the other FGI Entities for his personal use or benefit, until such time as the claims raised in this action have either been resolved by this Court, settled and/or withdrawn by the Parties to this action…”

The filing also states, “Plaintiff Nick Dou is informed and believes that the assets and property of FGI and the affiliated FGI Entities are at grave risk and danger of loss, and of material injury and impairment, at the hands of Defendant Dan Liu, if such property and assets are left under the exclusive control of Defendant Dan Liu.”

Dou asks the Court to “exercise its authority pursuant to S.C. Code Section 15-65-10, et seq., and immediately appoint a receiver over the property, assets, and operation of FGI and the affiliated FGI Entities.”

The three Chinese corporations named as co-defendants with Liu are: Jiangsu Tianru Danfo Commerce and Industry Co., Ltd., Nanjing Shuojun Trade and Industry Co. and Nanjing Xinyuanyuan Commerce and Trade Co., Ltd.

According to the complaint, all three corporations are organized and existing under the laws of the Peoples Republic of China and none of the three corporations have been “admitted to or authorized to conduct business in South Carolina.”

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