From a $95m house to gold mine woes and a broken marriage in three years

Three years ago businessman John Changjin Li seemed to have it all: a happy marriage, a gold mining operation in Indonesia and enough money to buy a new trophy home on the Point Piper waterfront for $95 million.

To add to his good fortune, the price of gold hit a nine-year high that year and Li went on a buying spree, adding a waterfront estate in Lake Macquarie, an investment house in Vaucluse and a Bayview mansion to his already well-endowed property portfolio.

But things seem to have gone awry since 2020.

John Changjin Li pictured at Lake Macquarie.

The mine has not legally produced an ounce of gold in almost two years and, according to an Indonesian court judgement, was instead at the centre of a major gold heist by some of the company’s top brass who have alleged that it was all at the behest of Li.

Closer to home, things are arguably worse. That marriage has fallen apart after less than three years and Li’s now-estranged wife Meihong Yang has sought, and won, court orders to have three of Li’s companies wound up by liquidators.

And a fourth company, known as Point Piper One Pty Ltd, which exchanged to buy that $95 million trophy home just weeks before the couple had tied the knot, has been transferred into Yang’s sole directorship and ownership.

Point Piper’s house of gold

Li’s purchase of one of the country’s most expensive houses, Edgewater, made headlines in September 2020. It was not only the second-highest house sale at that time, but a landmark residence in its own right that was built in the 1980s by showbiz entrepreneur Michael Edgley and later sold to Joe Brender and the late Sam Moss, co-founders of Katies women’s clothing retail chain.

A couple of weeks after the sale exchanged, Li and Yang were married.

According to a well-placed source who was not authorised to speak publicly, the $95 million purchase through Sotheby’s Michael Pallier was a highly structured deal with the option of a two to three-year settlement and involving multiple deposits (usually 10 per cent of the price) to be paid at intervals through the settlement.

The Edgewater mansion sold for $95 million is yet to settle to the company that purchased it, Point Piper One.Credit: Domain

Despite the protracted terms, Li has already commissioned a major redesign of the house by architectural firm MHN Design Union to create what is dubbed on the development application as the “Li Residence”.

Three years later, and after tens of millions of dollars have been paid toward the cost of the house, it remains unknown if Yang’s company will settle on it. Indeed, in Yang’s affidavit to the court, she alleged she only became aware that the purchase had not yet settled thanks to a story in this masthead.

Neither Li, 60, nor Yang, 59, would comment for this story, but according to a standard contract of sale, if the sale does not settle, the deposit would be forfeited and the Brender and Moss families could put the property back up for sale.

Trouble in paradise

Problems in Li and Yang’s marriage go back to June last year when Yang found out “Li had moved into one of the properties that had been purchased and was now residing there with his former wife”, according to a recent decision handed down by NSW Supreme Court judge Ashley Black.

According to Yang’s own affidavit, it was at this point that she moved into her apartment in Zetland that records show she purchased for almost $1.3 million in 2017.

The judgment adds that a month after Yang discovered Li was living with his former wife, she then discovered her corporate interests had been changed without her permission, prompting legal proceedings into the state of the couple’s joint corporate interests.

Justice Black ordered earlier this month that estranged wife Yang be installed as the sole director and owner of the company Point Piper One Pty Ltd, putting her in the box seat to complete the purchase of the Point Piper mansion.

Further, Justice Black ordered that three other companies controlled by Li and already in provisional administration be wound up by liquidators.

The three companies were placed into administration last year with debts itemised on the companies’ own corporate filings that included a tax debt totalling $7.5 million, $16,000 in council rates and charges, $800,000 in outstanding land tax, almost $1 million owed to construction company Forbair and $100 million in outstanding loans.

A property known as Mandalay, which is set on a waterfront peninsula of almost three hectares, and owned by one of the companies now in liquidation, One Lake Macquarie Pty Ltd, was recently almost sold.

Justice Black noted in his judgment that “there had been an attempted sale of the [Lake Macquarie] property to an associate of Mr Li at an apparent undervalue immediately prior to the provisional liquidator’s appointment, which they had not [been] permitted to complete”. There were no findings of misconduct or unlawful behaviour found against Li.

Indonesian gold heist

Li’s billionaire lifestyle is in part a credit to the gold mining operation in Borneo’s West Kalimantan region called PT Sultan Rafli Mandiri (SRM), of which Li’s corporate interests are a major shareholder.

Indonesian corporate records show Li’s previous wife, Changren Cheng, is the company managing director of PT SRM.

The tunnel owned by PT Sultan Rafli Mandiri was sealed by police.Credit: Arief Nugroho/Pontianak Post

The gold mine was sealed almost two years ago when police began an investigation into claims of illegal mining activity, confiscating a gold ore stockpile totalling 3000 tonnes.

What followed was detailed in a judgment handed down by Indonesia’s Ketapang District Court in the trial of the mine’s supervisor, Wang Shiming, in which he was found guilty “of taking an item that is confiscated in line with the law”.

According to a summary of the judgment, a few days after police sealed the mine it was alleged that the company’s major shareholder, Li, called from Australia to ask that the gold ore stockpile be processed into gold bars.

Over three nights workers produced 16 gold bars, photos of which were allegedly sent to Li via WeChat by the mine’s supervisor, according to the judgment.

Of those gold bars, 15 were transported to Jakarta and delivered to Li’s brother-in-law Li Zhi Hua, the judgment states.

Li Zhi Hua, 50, was arrested in Bali, and despite denying the allegations against him, at his trial he was found guilty for his role in the scheme by the Ketapang District Court. He was sentenced to four years jail, but that was revised to 18 months on appeal.

The gold bars remain missing.

No charges were made against Li and he was never part of the separate trials into the gold heist. He was contacted in relation to this story, but was unavailable to comment before publication.

Indonesian media reports in July of last year say the gold mine employees have not been paid for months following the shutdown, prompting workers to plead with the authorities to allow operations to start up again.

Meanwhile, back in Sydney a source with knowledge of the Edgewater deal said Li still intends to settle on the $95 million mansion at 92 Wolseley Road Point Piper. Corporate records show he recently set up a new company with his 20-year-old daughter Li Zhirou, called Point Piper 92 Pty Ltd.

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