Biography & Early Wealth Journey

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By the late 1980s, Huang had founded Gome Electrical Appliances, a retail chain selling home appliances. It was a revolutionary idea at the time. Back then, retail in China involved getting your customer into your shop and then selling them something as expensive as possible. Huang turned that idea upside down when he opened his Gome stores. He offered his appliances at the best possible prices, advertised heavily and acquired competitors to keep his retail empire growing.

Huang was in the right place at the right time. At the time, China was going through a rapid urbanization. Doing business in that climate required the right connections. At the time, there were likely regional state owned retail stores competing with Huang for the home appliance market. It isn't a stretch to think that to succeed in that climate, he had to associate with some shady characters and cut some corners.

Primary Income Streams & Multi-Million Contracts

In November 2008, Huang was detained by authorities and accused of manipulating stock prices. In the spring of 2010, a Beijing court had thrown him in prison, fined him 600 million yuan ($87 million), and confiscated 200 million yuan ($29 million) worth of property. Huang's wife Lisa Du Juan was fined 200 million yuan and sentenced to three and a half years behind bars for insider trading.

Additionally, five tax officials and senior police officers were detained and questioned during the investigation into Huang.

The case shocked China's entrepreneurs. It wasn't just that the government could take him down so thoroughly, but also that he allowed that to happen. It was shocking that he had not put protective measures such as cultivating government contacts in place. Such contacts would have been able to head any investigation into his business activities off at the pass and kept it out of court. The general feeling is that Huang must have either done something pretty terrible or upset someone very important.

Huang has time on his side. If he serves his full sentence, he will only be 55 years old when he is released. He still has a net worth of $3.25 billion.

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