Vicki Zhao’s Billionaire Husband Sued For S$52mil After Failing To Repay His S$26mil Debt

Chinese actress Vicki Zhao and her husband, billionaire tycoon Huang Youlong, may be one of the richest and most powerful couples in China with a combined net worth of US$1bil (S$1.3bil), but that certainly hasn’t shielded them from facing a myriad of very serious financial issues.

On Monday (Jun 28), Hongkong media broke the news that Youlong, 44, has found himself in deep legal trouble over a huge amount of money he borrowed a few years ago.

According to reports, Youlong signed two loan agreements with JC International Finance Limited for a total of HK$150mil (S$26mil) back in August and October 2016.

At the end of the loan period, Youlong was supposed to return the full amount plus an additional HK$27mil (S$4.7mil) in interest, but he only repaid a portion of what he owed.

JC International Finance Limited later transferred their creditors’ rights to another company, Max Pointer Limited, whose repeated attempts to get Youlong to pay them back all ended in vain.

This left them with no choice but to take him to court and file a claim for HK$298mil (S$52mil) in principal and interest last Friday (Jun 25).

This is just the latest in a string of money-related woes involving the businessman, who is a Singapore citizen.

In 2019, Michelle Chua, who is the wife of former ATV executive director James Shing, also sued Youlong over his HK$200mil (S$34.6mil) debt to her. However, at around the same time, Youlong allegedly splurged S$27.65mil on a two-storey penthouse in Singapore, supposedly proving how unaffected he was by the saga.

Then there’s the time he and Vicki, 45, were banned from China’s stock market for five years after they were found to have “misled the market with fake information” while announcing their company’s takeover of Zhejiang Wanjia Co. in 2016.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission conducted an investigation and discovered that the couple had only prepared 60mil yuan (S$12.5mil) of the 3bil yuan (S$624mil) needed for the bid, with the remaining amount being borrowed from other firms.

When Youlong’s newest lawsuit came to light, netizens took the opportunity to leave all sorts of scathing comments, such as “If you owe money, you should pay it back” and “They have so many houses, just sell one of them and the problem will be solved”.

Some are also convinced that Vicki and Youlong are no longer married, writing: “Aren’t these two rumoured to have broken up? So this doesn’t have anything to do with Vicki” and “Vicki divorced this person a long time ago, he has brought her so much misery”.

Youlong and Vicki got married in 2008 and their daughter, April, is now 11.

Photos: 圈小记/Weibo, Huang Youlong/Weibo, 搜狐娱乐/Weibo