Inter President Steven Zhang is expected to appear in court regarding an ongoing €300m lawsuit from Chinese Bank China Construction Bank. The case related to an alleged unpaid debt of over €300m to the Asian branch of the bank, and legal proceedings will get under way in the early part of March.
Tuttosport report that Zhang, due to the Covid Pandemic and the very strict regulations policy implemented by the Beijing government, has moved permanently between Milan and the United States, and as a result, the Chinese banking institution has opened two other legal challenges to the Inter President, one in the Lombard capital, the other in the States.
Provided that there is no postponement, at the moment Judge Alina Zama will give the ‘kick-off’ to the hearing at the Milan court on 8 March at 10am. There, the creditors will ask for the cancellation of a resolution which meant that Inter no longer pays Zhang’s salary as president (according to the prosecution’s estimates, the sum would amount to €914,000 per year). In this sense, Zhang appears to have neither assets nor real estate in Italy. In Hong Kong – where no less than two proceedings have been opened – Zhang is instead expected to appear on Monday 13 March to be questioned about the assets in his possession and the debts he boasts, both of which are ‘attackable’ by creditors.
According to the website Calcio e Finanza, which came into possession of the documents drawn up on the matter, the Inter president could risk up to three months in prison:
“If the Court has ascertained, as a result of the examination carried out, that the judgment debtor has concealed assets in order to avoid the fulfilment of the judgment or the liability which is the subject of the judgment, in whole or in part, or has willfully failed to answer any question, it may, at its discretion, order the imprisonment of the debtor for a period not exceeding three months.”
Another legal challenge concerns the application for conviction ‘for contempt of court in Hong Kong on account of his false affidavits in the proceedings leading to the entry of the Hong Kong judgment‘. That last challenge has been opened in the United States.
In Italy, Zhang will be defended by the law firm Latham & Watkins, the same firm that had overseen the Nerazzurri club’s January 2022 issuance of the €415m bond and, before that, had assisted the parties in the share transfer between Erick Thohir and Suning.
