Five years after its announcement with great fanfare, Old Quebec “ made in china “, which was to see the light of day in 2022, does not exist. Behind the somewhat crazy idea of reproducing the heart of the Quebec capital 100 km from Shanghai was a vast financial scam that drove the business of an extravagant Chinese billionaire into bankruptcy and landed him in prison.
This Old Quebec projected by the wealthy Wei Jie was not only a flop. It was also a fraud, devised by a Chinese megalomaniac who, at his zenith, handed out wads of cash like others do candy, lined Times Square with advertisements to his own glory and forced his employees to display his portrait on their desks. , has learned The duty.
In 2017, however, when Wei Jie announced that he wanted to erect a Château Frontenac at the mouth of the Yangtze River, everything seemed to smile on him. Private planes, Bentley car, financial empire: the man was not yet 40 and already worth several billion.
“He was also very interested in Quebec,” says the province’s former delegate to China, Jean-François Lépine. At that time, we only had good things to say about him. »
Over the years, Mr. Wei had forged many business relationships with local companies, notably involving Cavalia and Cirque Éloize in China. The businessman also gave a speech at the Montreal International Film Festival in 2015, in addition to opening a restaurant – the now defunct JCer – on De Maisonneuve Boulevard. “I think he also met at least once with former Prime Minister Philippe Couillard,” adds Mr. Lépine.
It was, continues the former Quebec diplomat, before Mr. Wei became “completely crazy”.
A “very dodgy” Old Quebec
The billionaire had expressed in 2017 the desire to reproduce the city of Quebec in Qidong, an hour north of Shanghai. “He had fallen in love with the province,” says Vincent Asselin, a retired landscape architect who, at the time, had contributed to the first drafts of Asian Old Quebec.
Mr. Wei’s dream, however, seemed shaky from the start. “The project was constantly changing. At first, he wanted to make a replica of the Château Frontenac, open Quebec restaurants, museums, a university,” says Mr. Lépine. All this was to see the light of day on “a field of potatoes next to a brown sea, illustrates the former Quebec diplomat. We weren’t impressed at all.”
Apparently, Qidong City Hall was not either. “The municipality didn’t like the idea of Old Quebec at all,” explains Mr. Asselin. She found it a little ridiculous to make a city in the image of another city when she, at the time, was trying to establish a personality of her own. »
To carry out his project, Mr. Wei had requested a financial contribution from Quebec. “He told us: ‘You have to help me if you want this to happen,’ says Jean-François Lépine. We found that very suspicious. »
It was. In 2019, the pyramid scheme that supported Mr. Wei’s princely lifestyle came crashing down. “Investors began to demand their money, and the government realized that Wei Jie was in the process of going bankrupt for about five billion dollars, explains the former Quebec diplomat. What he was doing was a Ponzi scheme: he was financing his past projects by selling future projects. It was windy. »
The government and the City of Quebec assure that they have never invested a cent in the adventure.
“The Eyeshadow Factory”
Wei Jie and his company JC Group made a fortune developing theme villages in rural China, with the blessing of Chinese local authorities.
the South China Morning Post says that JC Group had nearly 60 townships in the pipeline when it went bankrupt, each more bizarre and disproportionate than the next. Poetry City, Fairy City, Crayfish Hamlet, and Happiness Village—the latter including a “sex park” as its main attraction—all featured in the company’s boxes. The reproduction of Old Quebec in Qidong was in the same vein.
The JC Group train seemed unstoppable, to the point where investors were shelling out a minimum of $200,000 to board. The company’s annual meetings were veritable debauches of money. Just months before his arrest, for example, Wei Jie had rented the Water Cube — Beijing’s Olympic swimming pool — for three days of performances dedicated to polishing his halo. Crowning his ego would have cost $40 million, estimates Dominic Vienne, a former JC Group employee that The duty joined in Europe.
“It wasn’t just window dressing. It was the complete powder factory! “he illustrates at the end of the line.
This Quebecer was, between 2016 and 2017, the only expatriate employed by Mr. Wei. “He wanted to start an entertainment department and he hired me as artistic director,” he says. At the time of hiring, remembers Dominic Vienne, Mr. Wei represented “a normal Chinese company president, always very well dressed and respectful”.
However, “he made a 180 degree turn after the Chinese New Year”, explains the former employee of JC Group. “Overnight, he swapped his suits for Taoist togas. He never wore Western clothing again. »
The fall of a Chinese Caligula
A grotesque cult of personality subsequently took root within the company. “All the employees had to have a photo of him on their desk,” says Mr. Vienne. On his birthday, each department had to make a video celebrating him. »
Wei Jie’s appetite for excess seemed like his fortune, that is to say bottomless. Dominic Vienne says that during a karaoke evening, his boss had fun drawing wads of banknotes spread out without embarrassment on the billiard table. Once the money ran out, it was by bank transfer of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 that Wei Jie continued his game, adds Mr. Vienne. Another time, the CEO of JC Group had lined the Hangzhou metro, which has 11 lines and nearly 250 stations, for a month with advertisements in honor of a book written by him. The wealthy Chinese had also, Mr. Vienne remembers, bought half of the billboards in Times Square to advertise the book.
While good employees received a house and a Porsche as a reward for good performance, decline was approaching at corporate headquarters. “It felt,” says Mr. Vienne, who jumped ship in 2017 to join Cirque du Soleil. Departments were closing, he continued, and a persistent rumor that the police were meeting with employees was buzzing.
Wei Jie’s arrest in May 2019 ultimately led to the collapse of his empire. The collapse of JC Group dragged some 3,800 Chinese investors down with it, according to the South China Morning Post. Wei Jie faced life imprisonment for illegal financing. He finally, according to Dominic Vienne, served a few years in prison before regaining his freedom by paying a fine of… $5,000.
With Marie-Michele Sioui