Yunnan Dongyuan Construction & Engineering Co. Ltd. Interior Design Fraud Kunming Yunnan Province

Referring to the Report on the Yunnan Dongyuan Construction & Engineering Limited Kunming Interior Design Fraud - Fengyuan Villa kunming Yunnan, posted on 12/10/2014, we encountered the same problem as the person named (Mr Chen) and with the same company which the reporter from the United States has described in his report.

We are an Interior Design firm based in London and in October 2014, we were contacted by Mr Chen through our business website, with the opportunity to complete interior design for luxury villas in Kunming. Necessary drawings and information about the project were sent to us.

We did our research before proceeding with further correspondences with Mr Chen, and could not find any negative or contrary information about the company and the project.

After exchanging several correspondences we were requested for a first visit to site in Yunnan and according to the business background culture of china we were suggested to bring enough money with us to buy some presents for the principles attending the meeting, to offer usually local cigarettes. This will speed up the process of application for foreign exchange and their payment on time.

 We booked our own ticket and made our hotel booking as normal practice. When we arrived to Yunnan, we were picked up by Mr Chen together with his translator and driver, and taken to the hotel. On the same day we reviewed the contract and discuss about the project.

 The following morning we were taken at one of their “site offices” to finalise and sign the contract. After the signing ceremony one of the managers took us to shop to buy the expensive cigarettes which cost us around £3000.  Then we met the bank manager and fire officer during lunch to discuss about the details of the project. Mr Chen sent us to Kumming Heritage Village after lunch in order for us to understand the local culture and architecture of different tirbes.

 Upon getting back to London, we issued an invoice of the first payment of 20% of the project before starting the work with our banking information.

 We were contacted by the financial Manager Mr Liu Wei Bing, Financial Manager of the company, asking to provide a remittance fee to a private account to avoid them to pay extra tax. This is when we realise there is something wrong going on where they are asking for large sums to be deposited from our private bank account to their private bank account.

 We did another thorough search and we came through the report of the US person and find out from other resources that it has never been the case in china for extra tax, etc….

 Hope this post will inform other companies of the scan and fraud that these people are doing in Kunming under the disguise of developers looking for interior design from foreign companies.