Chinese Businessman Charged with Obtaining Property by Deception  

A Chinese businessman is in trouble with the law after a fellow comrade alleged that he was conned out of almost a quarter million dollars’ worth of drinks. Owner of Ritchie’s Supermarket Limited, and Island City Supermarket Limited, thirty-seven-year-old Wen Yuen Zhen pleaded not guilty to the charge today and was offered bail of ten thousand dollars. The Court Prosecutor, Corporal Humbert Ayala had heavy objections to bail, including that he is a flight risk since he is just a naturalized Belizean and not a born Belizean. Furthermore, Ayala argued that there are no documents before the court to substantiate that Zhen has ties to Belize, but Zhen’s attorney, Immanuel Williams, submitted to the court that Zhen is a businessman with several properties in Belize and has no problem surrendering all his travel documents to the court with any necessary company documents to show his ties Belize. According to Williams, Zhen has been doing business in Belize for over seventeen years and that he has brought a civil suit against the virtual complainant. The magistrate offered Zhen bail of ten thousand dollars, plus one surety of the same, or two sureties of five thousand dollars each. It is alleged that Wen dishonestly obtained an assortment of drinks belonging to Caribbean International Brewery, all to a total of just under a quarter of a million dollars. According to police reports, on December second, 2022, the other Chinese businessman, sixty-two-year-old Kevin Xin of Carmelita Village, Orange Walk and Director of the Caribbean International Brewery Limited, (C.I.B.) reported to them that between April sixth, 2022 and August fifth, 2022, he sold an assortment of alcoholic drinks to Zhen. He said that Zhen paid with two Atlantic Bank cheques, which the bank later informed him could not be processed because a stop order had been made by another person. He said Zhen told him he would check on it, but he has not heard from him and has stopped answering his calls. But Zhen’s attorney, Immanuel Williams says Zhen is suing the brewery and Xin in a civil matter that is already before the court. In that suit, Zhen is asking for the removal of the beers and for the brewery to pay for warehouse storage fees. Williams shared some details on how the two businessmen ended up in court.

 

Emmanuel Williams, Attorney for Wen Yuen Zhen

“The matter is still in its infancy, so there’s not much I can state about the matter at this time. However, there is an agreement between the complainant and Mr. Zhen, and pursuant to that agreement, there was some bad faith between the parties, and the complaint was lodged, and subsequently my client was charged with the offence of obtaining property by deception. He is not to interfere with the witness and they encourage him not to be within a hundred feet of the witness and to visit the court every Friday until the conclusion of the matter.”

 

Zhen must appear again in court on July tenth.