Big-spending Shanghai internet celebrity of Ferrari-crash fame revealed to be son of Hong Kong investor
- “King” Qin Fen gained online fame for his extravagant ways, after first grabbing attention for his calm reaction to crashing a limited-edition Ferrari
- A joint fine for insider trading in 2017 has now revealed him to be the son of Hong Kong resident Qin Sixin
The family background of a Shanghai-based internet celebrity is no longer a mystery, after a fine imposed for insider trading accidentally gave away the details.
There had been intense speculation online that Qing Fen was from a political family but that appears not to be the case.
Qin, who goes by the moniker “King” on Weibo, has now been confirmed to be the son of Qin Sixin, a 61-year-old Hong Kong resident living in Happy Valley.
The pair were fined 600,000 yuan (US$89,600) in all for their involvement in insider trading in Shenzhen-listed Xinmao Science and Technology Co. ahead of a planned asset acquisition in 2017, according to a document released by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
The fine for the illegal act, announced on the commission’s website more than a week ago on May 19, became a trending topic on Weibo on Saturday.
The regulator’s findings indicated that Qin Sixin was an old friend of the Xinmao chairman and partly funded the acquisition deal. He transferred a large sum to his son who bought 50.18 million yuan in shares ahead of the acquisition announcement in March 2017. However, Qin Fen made no profits from the deal, the document showed.
On Weibo, Qin Fen is verified as the chairman of Shanghai Fenrong Investment Co, registered in 2012 with 30 million yuan in capital, and an investor in the King E-sports Club, an online gaming service.
Qin has 10.7 million followers on the Twitter-like platform but has made only three posts in the past six months.
The government business registry says he has roles in 16 Chinese companies, and serves as an executive in seven of them, according to Tianyancha, a Chinese commercial database that compiles registration records.
First spotted by net users for calmly playing with his phone on the crash site of his reportedly 22.5 million yuan (US$3.4 million) Ferrari LaFerrari in 2015, Qin’s extravagant ways earned him the online nickname of “emperor of Shanghai”. Speculation ran wild about his family background, the web gossip convinced that he came from a very rich family, as every bit of his personal news became viral.
Beijing restricts what celebrities can do in cyberspace
The CSRC document did not mention when the insider trading investigation started, nor reveal further information about Qin’s father.
Good government connections were once regarded as essential for doing business in China, before the authorities tried to improve the process with simplified procedures. Similarly, family background – either political connections or billions in the bank – is often a good selling point, but it is hard for the public to learn the details of many such deals because of a lack of transparency.
Two others involved in the Xinmao insider trading received similar fines the same day, the CSRC note said.
