Author: Colin Wu, Wu Blockchain
This article is an interview by Colin, the editor-in-chief of Wu Blockchain, with Huang Yifeng, the senior of Zhang Yufeng from Shenzhen University, on October 12.
Zhang Yufeng was dubbed the "little Ma Huateng" by the media, and many authoritative media reported that he donated 50 million yuan to Shenzhen University just a year after graduation. But later, it was exposed that his resume was heavily fabricated, he did not actually make the donation, and he even did not graduate normally, owed online loans, and falsely claimed to be an FTX employee.
But even more surprising is that after obtaining the trust of alumni through fraudulent donations, Zhang Yufeng has been frequently asking his acquaintances for money in the name of investing in "pans" (crypto projects) in the past year. When the deadline expires, he fails to return the money on time, and some victims have even filed a police report. To prevent more people from being deceived, Zhang Yufeng's senior from Shenzhen University, Huang Yifeng, decided to come forward and publicly expose this "professional swindler".
Huang Yifeng said that Zhang Yufeng claimed to have some crypto "pans" that could double the investment in a few months. After his friends around him invested, Zhang Yufeng started to delay repayment and came up with many absurd excuses, such as being hospitalized in Hong Kong. After multiple victims filed a police report, Zhang Yufeng's parents, who run a printing factory in Dongguan, helped repay part of the debt. Zhang Yufeng's rental in Shenzhen Bay One was also warned for rent arrears. Zhang Yufeng even owed 6,000 yuan in online loans.
Background information:
2. Personal introduction of the whistleblower Huang Yifeng
The following is a summary, for the full interview and more details, please follow and listen to the Wu Blockchain podcast:
Listen on Xiaoyuzhou FM: https://www.xiaoyuzhoufm.com/episode/670a8bc2db2cf82757b86a30
Listen on Youtube: https://youtu.be/PrEThWwCFRw
Interview summary:
Huang Yifeng: Let me first talk about my background. I am a 2017 graduate of Shenzhen University, and I can be considered Zhang Yufeng's senior (Zhang Yufeng enrolled at Shenzhen University in 2018). I got to know Zhang Yufeng in 2021 when I was starting a business, and by chance he added me on WeChat due to some startup subsidies.
From 2021 to 2024, we kept chatting. He often shared some seemingly impressive things on his Moments, such as getting an offer from Sequoia, taking a photo with FTX founder SBF. He even said he became an LP of Sequoia and gave them several tens of millions. He also (claimed to have) bought a Ferrari. Since the beginning of 2022, he has been creating a very impressive image for himself.
To be fair, I was quite familiar with him, and with the background of his 50 million yuan donation to Shenzhen University, I would give a not-so-small amount of money to such a person without a contract, that was the situation.
At the end of 2023, I formally entered the crypto industry, and then I started to communicate with Zhang Yufeng. Around May this year, he said he had some "pans" (crypto projects) with great returns, and asked me to give him 1 million yuan, which could help me double it in a quarter, and then I could use the money to improve my life or start a market maker fund.
It was around early May, around the May 1st holiday, that I gave him a total of about 84 million yuan.
Colin: When did you realize something was wrong and ask him to return the money?
Huang Yifeng: Our normal arrangement was that he would pay me back the money in a quarter, and he promised me at the time in early May that the money could not possibly lose, and if it did, he would return the principal to me.
Colin: Why did you trust him so much that you didn't even have a contract?
Huang Yifeng: From 2022 to 2024, first of all, we were very familiar, often chatting, and in the end, I didn't think he would only cheat on acquaintances; secondly, we were both Shenzhen University alumni; thirdly, he donated 50 million yuan to Shenzhen University, which I thought couldn't be fake. Basically, the situation of all the victims is the same as mine, just the three reasons above.
At the time, I had read the Wu Blockchain report more than five times. When I transferred the money to him in May, I re-read the Wu Blockchain report and other negative news, but I still chose to believe this person in the end. Because I thought at the time, a swindler couldn't have cheated for so long, from 2022 to now. His information, identity, and background were very coherent. I saw a lot of negative news, but I didn't believe it at the time.
Colin: When did you start to have doubts?
Huang Yifeng: It was when he delayed the repayment of the principal. Because we had agreed on the first installment to be July 25th, he proactively told me that the market was not doing well recently, so a little less, and we postponed it to August 20th. In mid-July, one of his close friends posted a tweet, and gradually, many victims contacted that key person, and I learned about the whole story.
Victims like me, as far as I know, there are about 10 people, and the timeline is from around September 2023, and the known amount is over 3 million yuan. As far as I know, most of the principal has been returned to most people, but there is still at least 200,000 yuan that some people haven't received, because this person is still chasing them.
In fact, someone has already reported to the police. At that time, there was about 1 million yuan that Zhang Yufeng owed to one of his college classmates, and that person reported to the police, and the police directly went to Zhang Yufeng's family and got the 1 million yuan back. Some of the victims are his close friends since high school, and they graduated and traveled together. His family does run a printing factory.
Colin: How did Zhang Yufeng create his personal image?
Huang Yifeng: He is a professional swindler. From 2022 to now, he has been building this kind of persona, that he is very rich, like showing his Stanford admission proof, his OKX account with several tens of millions of USDT, and often showing it to people.
I think his delusions of grandeur are undoubtedly. He even said he met Musk and was one of the top 10 shareholders of Tesla.
I've been to his home in Shenzhen Bay One. First, he told me he bought it, but later I found out it was rented, and eventually found out he was behind on the rent and had a warning posted.
In 2023, before and after his donation, he was already in debt with online loans, just 6,000 yuan, and he urgently contacted one of his close friends to fill in his phone number, and the loan company called his friend.
I think Shenzhen University was also deceived (donation fraud), before the donation, the dean of their college also invited Zhang Yunfeng to give some lectures. Talking about the path to financial freedom, how to get a Sequoia offer.
Colin: Why do you want to expose him?
Huang Yifeng: If I don't expose him, more people will be deceived. Actually, there were a lot of small incidents in between, like he asked me to go to Hong Kong, and then asked me to go to Singapore, and then he ghosted me. When he didn't pay the money, he said he had myocarditis and was hospitalized in Hong Kong, and the medical examination fee was 50,000 yuan, the hospitalization fee was 100,000 yuan, his private plane was also canceled because of this, and a deposit of 100,000 yuan was deducted. His father had myocarditis and was in the ICU. His mother was also sick, all kinds of reasons to push it off.
His ancestral home is Meizhou, but he is from Dongguan. He only deceived the people around him, only the closest group of people. It's really outrageous. Some of his internships were bought, and some internships may have been fabricated. There are still two transfer records for purchased internships.
According to friends, at least two groups of people have gone to his parents to ask for money. His father doesn't want to pay back, thinking that his son's ability to deceive money is his talent, just don't come to bother me, that's his mentality, his mother may be a little more kind, and over the course of a year, he gradually paid back the money.
Colin: Actually, this matter is not complicated. Zhang Yunfeng may have some delusions, no money to spend, his family didn't give him money, so he went to ask the people around him for an excuse to borrow money.
Huang Yifeng: I think so, but there are some very bad parts in the process, such as only deceiving the people around him, some of which are against human nature. I've always been curious about how many people he deceived later when he opened the Knowledge Sphere. The podcast that the Deribit employee did about him also deceived a lot of people.
