Once lost nearly 300 million yuan in just 6 days, Zhao Wei's ex-husband was confronted by high-society ladies from Hong Kong and Macau over unpaid interest
A recent ruling by the High Court of Hong Kong has brought to light long-buried details of the gambling past of Huang Youlong, ex-husband of Chinese actress Zhao Wei.
In February 2015, Huang Youlong lost 60 million Australian dollars at an Australian casino in just 6 days, equivalent to approximately 283 million yuan at the prevailing exchange rate at that time.
The plaintiff in this case, Chua Yee-fung, claims that she entered into two oral loan agreements with Huang Youlong in her personal capacity, stipulating an annual interest rate of 24% for overdue payments. Even though Huang Youlong has repaid the principal in full to Suncity, the interest claim exists independently and should be compensated separately.
However, the judge ultimately dismissed all the plaintiff's claims, ruling that the gaming credit contractual relationship involved in the case had no connection with the plaintiff, and the plaintiff had no right to claim huge interest payments from Huang Youlong alone. In response, Chua Yee-fung stated that she would file an appeal.
With the exposure of this dispute, Huang Youlong and his ex-wife Zhao Wei have once again been thrust into the spotlight, and their past experiences have sparked widespread public discussion once more.
Huang Youlong Borrowed to Gamble, Losing Nearly 300 Million Yuan in 6 Days
According to Hong Kong media reports, Chua Yee-fung served as Vice President of Marketing at Crown Resorts Limited in 2015, responsible for arranging or recruiting high-net-worth clients to Crown Casino, and earning commissions or split profits by arranging gaming credits and exchanging casino chips.
As reported by Shanghai Securities News, in late February 2015, Huang Youlong, under the arrangement of Chua Yee-fung, traveled to Crown Perth to gamble, and applied for a large sum of chip credits from Chua Yee-fung.
Since Huang Youlong already had outstanding gambling debts at multiple casinos at that time, the internal risk control team of Crown Group refused to directly issue him a large credit line, requiring Chua Yee-fung to find a third party to assume the risk of this credit business.
Subsequently, Chua Yee-fung approached Chau Cheok-wa, and Sun City Gaming Promotion Co., Ltd. — the leading Macau gaming junket operator behind Chau — stepped in to handle the chip credit arrangement.
It is reported that Chau Cheok-wa, known as the "King of Macau's Casino Halls", is the actual controller of Sun City. Chua Yee-fung's mother Lin and cousin Si were both investors in Sun City. However, in 2023, a Macau court convicted Chau Cheok-wa of multiple charges including founding and leading a criminal syndicate, and he was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
After Sun City entered the transaction chain, it quickly obtained a total of 40 million Australian dollars worth of chips from Crown and transferred them to Huang Youlong. Lin and Si acted as guarantors to repay the funds to Sun City, and then the two would recover the money from Huang Youlong through Chua Yee-fung.
Notably, Crown did not charge any interest to Sun City, and Sun City also did not accrue interest for Lin and Si, effectively creating a zero-cost capital channel.
On February 25, 2015, Huang Youlong arrived at the casino and lost all the 40 million Australian dollars worth of chips in just two days. He immediately requested additional credits, and with the coordination of Chua Yee-fung, Lin and Si, Huang Youlong obtained another 20 million Australian dollars worth of chips.
But a few days later, this sum of money was quickly lost by Huang Youlong as well. By then, Huang Youlong had lost a total of 60 million Australian dollars within 6 days, equivalent to approximately 283 million yuan at the exchange rate of that time.
Chua Yee-fung claims that she reached oral agreements with Huang Youlong regarding the two aforementioned credits: the first sum of 40 million Australian dollars was to be repaid within 3 months, and the second sum of 20 million Australian dollars was to be repaid within 1 month, with an annual interest rate of 24% to be paid for any overdue amount.
The two credits, combined with intermediary service fees and interest, resulted in an involved amount of hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars. However, Huang Youlong denied that he had any oral agreements with Chua Yee-fung in her personal capacity.
From March to July 2015, Huang Youlong and his controlled enterprise Zhilong Global Group Holdings Limited repaid a total of 143 million Hong Kong dollars to Chua Yee-fung and her wholly-owned enterprise Marvella Group (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd.
In addition, Huang Youlong also had his personal assistant issue three checks with a total face value of 180 million Hong Kong dollars, which were delivered to Chua Yee-fung on June 28, 2015, as performance guarantees for the two gaming credit debts.
On July 28 of the same year, Chua Yee-fung filled in her own name as the payee and attempted to cash the checks, but the bank directly dishonored them.
With the intervention of Chau Cheok-wa, from February 2016 to November 2019, Huang Youlong directly repaid a total of approximately 273 million Hong Kong dollars to Sun City. On September 17, 2019, Sun City signed a release deed, confirming that Huang Youlong's 60 million Australian dollar debt had been fully settled.
Nevertheless, Chua Yee-fung believed that Huang Youlong only repaid the principal and never paid the overdue interest and related intermediary fees, so she filed a lawsuit with the High Court of Hong Kong.
On June 30, 2026, the High Court of Hong Kong ruled that Chua Yee-fung lost the case. The court held that: first, it was Sun City that provided the 60 million Australian dollars in gaming credits to Huang Youlong, and the contractual transaction relationship existed between Sun City and Huang Youlong.
Second, Chua Yee-fung did not enter into the two alleged oral credit agreements with Huang Youlong in her personal capacity, and the so-called agreements do not exist.
Third, Huang Youlong never agreed to pay overdue interest to Chua Yee-fung, and Chua Yee-fung had no right to collect it.
Based on the above findings, the court dismissed all of Chua Yee-fung's claims against Huang Youlong and his company Zhilong Global; regarding the three checks that had long expired for many years, the judge ruled that no declaratory or injunctive relief was necessary; at the same time, it was ordered that Chua Yee-fung bear all the defendant's litigation costs.
Gave 5 Million Hong Kong Dollars as a "Wedding Gift", But Was Demanded Interest and Intermediary Fees by a Socialite
Public information shows that the plaintiff in this case, Chua Yee-fung, is a well-known socialite in Hong Kong and Macau. She comes from a wealthy Macau family, is a Filipino-Chinese of Spanish descent. Her parents are engaged in finance and real estate businesses, and also operate hotels in mainland China, with the market estimating her net worth to exceed 2 billion Hong Kong dollars.
During the court hearing of this case, Chua Yee-fung claimed that she graduated from the Department of Finance of Xiamen University and obtained an accounting license.
After graduation, instead of joining the family business as planned, Chua Yee-fung recommended herself to work as a receptionist in the casino marketing department. She spent eight years getting promoted through more than a dozen ranks, and eventually became the head of the marketing department. It is reported that at that time, more than 80% of Crown Group's revenue, including that from its casino hotels, came from the department she worked in.
At the end of 2013, Chua Yee-fung founded Macau Rise Group, venturing into the jewelry business. At the end of the following year, Chua Yee-fung married Sheng Pin-yu, former executive director of Asia Television, and held their wedding in October 2015.
It is worth mentioning that after the fund cashing was blocked, the two parties once negotiated to use a luxury property in Hong Kong's Villa Horizon to offset part of the debt at a discounted price. The property has a market valuation of 70 million Hong Kong dollars, and the two parties agreed to use 65 million Hong Kong dollars of it to offset the balance of the gambling debt.
It is reported that the property was previously registered under the name of Huang Youlong's friend Li. On August 10, 2015, Chua Yee-fung and her younger brother, as buyers, and Li, as the seller, signed the property sales agreement.
On the same day, Huang Youlong paid 10 million Hong Kong dollars to Chua Yee-fung for her to pay the property purchase deposit. Subsequently, Chua Yee-fung moved into Villa Horizon and began to renovate the property.
However, Huang Youlong failed to pay the remaining balance for the property purchase for a long time. As the seller Li threatened to terminate the transaction, Chua Yee-fung paid off the full house price with her own funds, and the property's ownership transfer was not formally completed until September 15, 2017.
Some media reported that the original owner Li held the property for nearly 6 years, and Chua Yee-fung only made a small profit after deducting the transaction fees when she sold it later. In addition, Chua Yee-fung also owns a property in Beverly Hills, California.
However, regarding the Villa Horizon property, Huang Youlong stated that the 5 million Hong Kong dollar difference was a "wedding red envelope" given to Chua Yee-fung as a free gift, and was not part of the debt offset.
Divorced from Zhao Wei for Years, The Former Mysterious Tycoon Now Resides Overseas Long-Term
If he had not been married to actress Zhao Wei, the public might have hardly noticed this low-profile wealthy man Huang Youlong.
According to The Beijing News, Huang Youlong's hometown is in Hunan Province. When he was a teenager, he left home to work hard with his father Huang Xiaocheng, who was engaged in business. It is rumored that Huang Xiaocheng had been to places like Jiangxi and Guangzhou, running businesses in brick kilns and building materials.
In 1993, 17-year-old Huang Youlong had just arrived in Shenzhen to start his career not long ago. Online rumors said that Huang Youlong got to know a certain local leader in Shenzhen and became his full-time driver, through which he accumulated connections and resources. However, an uncertified Weibo account of Huang Youlong once denied this rumor.
As reported by China Business Journal, multiple people who have had contact with Huang Youlong's family stated that Huang Youlong's first pot of gold came from the cement business in Guangdong.
Between 2000 and 2002, Huang Youlong worked at Shenzhen Zhonghang Kangyi Entertainment Co., Ltd., a cultural enterprise under Zhonghang Real Estate.
In 2001, Huang Youlong spent 2.34 million yuan to purchase a commercial apartment with a construction area of 183 square meters in Shenzhen International Culture Building.
In 2002, Huang Youlong co-founded Shenzhen Dongrunda Investment Development Co., Ltd. with others, and served as its general manager.
While managing Dongrunda, Huang Youlong also participated in the operation of Guangzhou Golden Leaf Hotel Co., Ltd. located in Zengcheng in 2003.
In the following year, Huang Youlong acquired shares in Shenzhen Huanri Industrial Co., Ltd. (later renamed Huanri Investment). According to Tianyancha, currently Huang Youlong is only associated with Huanri Investment, and the latter was deregistered in 2016.
It is reported that the original holder of the Golden Leaf Hot Spring Resort Hotel project was Guangdong Zhongshan Rongguang Investment Group. In 2003, Rongguang Investment Group transferred it to Guangzhou Changshi Industrial, and two years later, Huang Youlong's second sister Huang Li took over the hotel.
In July 2008, the Golden Leaf Hot Spring Resort Hotel was transferred to Wen Chun-qing, a wealthy businessman from Meizhou, who is a mutual friend of Zhao Wei and Huang Youlong.
Before meeting Zhao Wei, Huang Youlong dated former Miss Hong Kong winner Tracy Ip in 2008, but the two broke up over the issue of having children. Shortly afterwards, Huang Youlong got to know Zhao Wei and registered their marriage.
After getting married, the two joined forces to enter the capital market, with listed companies they involved in including Alibaba Pictures Group Limited, RDE Group Limited, etc. Through a series of capital operations, the net worth of the couple Huang Youlong and Zhao Wei increased significantly, and Zhao Wei was even hailed by the public as the "female version of Warren Buffett".
However, in November 2017, Xiangyuan Culture (formerly known as Wanjia Culture) received a prior notice of administrative penalty and market ban from the China Securities Regulatory Commission. The case involving alleged illegal information disclosure by Wanjia Culture, Longwei Media and others had been investigated and concluded. Kong Deyong, Huang Youlong, Zhao Wei and Zhao Zheng were given warnings and fined 300,000 yuan respectively; Kong Deyong, Huang Youlong and Zhao Wei were imposed a 5-year ban from entering the securities market. This incident also became a huge turning point in the public reputation of Huang and Zhao.
On December 28, 2024, Zhao Wei announced on Weibo that she had been divorced from Huang Youlong for many years. Later, relevant documents revealed that their divorce date was July 23, 2021.
Nowadays, Huang Youlong resides abroad for a long time and rarely appears in public. During the hearing of this lawsuit, Huang Youlong's lawyer stated that he was in France and could not take a long-distance flight due to heart discomfort, and applied to appear in court via video link. However, the court rejected his application because he failed to provide valid medical certificates, so he did not appear in court to testify.
This article is from WeChat Official Account "Radar Finance", written by Ding Yu, edited by Meng Shuai, and published with authorization from 36Kr.