In 2013, in Jiangcheng, a routine audit by the Jiangcheng Special Commissioner’s Office of the National Audit Office turned up financial statements from Rongzhong Construction Group that were “suspiciously perfect”: revenue as steady as a straight line, costs matched with pinpoint accuracy, and accounts receivable turning over at a pace that defied industry norms. The private company looked exemplary, but something was clearly amiss.
Senior auditor Chen Jingzhi spotted the irregularities and led a team of young auditors, including Zhou Ming, in a deeper investigation. After three days and nights of painstaking cross-checking, Rongzhong Construction’s façade of lies began to peel away: nearly 80 million yuan in overstated revenue, forged key contracts, fake invoices, and deliberately falsified accounts to manufacture profits. A shell company had even defrauded multiple financial institutions of loans exceeding 100 million yuan.
As the investigation dug deeper, an even more shocking web of corruption came to light. The management of Beijiang Branch, a city commercial bank, colluded with Landeheng, issuing 70 million yuan in fraudulent personal installment loans and misappropriating nearly 30 million yuan in employee personal loans to create an illegal pool of funds. Meanwhile, Landeheng transferred assets through offshore accounts and secretly funneled benefits to several municipal leaders and their relatives through “consulting fees” and “assets held on their behalf,” building a formidable protective network.
As the audit progressed, Landeheng used violence to threaten members of the audit team while also exerting pressure through the municipal leadership, trying to obstruct the investigation and bury the matter. But Chen Jingzhi upheld the principle of audit independence, leading the special investigation team through the maze of funds to secure key evidence. In the end, they produced an audit report that struck directly at the heart of the corruption. ...
