A couple of weeks ago, the Panama Police announced the capture of a powerful businessman from Shanghai (China) in a case of fraud and corruption linked to the construction of a promising port right in the middle of the country’s canal that was left unfinished.
The news came as a surprise to the Panamanian elite when they learned that the captured individual was the powerful businessman Kenneth Liang Zhang, who presented himself as a banker and international investor and executive of several companies dedicated to civil works.
In Colombia, questions began to arise about two compatriots linked to the investor. EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit investigated and established that they are the sons of a renowned retired Police general and found corporate ties.
The business network
It is known that Liang Zhang had a red Interpol notice and that he was captured following a request issued by Chinese authorities.
He is accused there of appropriating business assets worth about 275 million dollars – approximately 850 billion Colombian pesos– which were allegedly taken from the port construction project in Panama through two companies: Shanghai Gorgeous Investment and Panama Colon Container Port.
According to the file, Kenneth is said to have inherited a business and financial empire from another Chinese magnate, captured in 2021, in an initial phase of the same investigation for embezzlement.
Regarding the Colombian chapter, intelligence agents confirmed that one of the sons of the renowned retired general Rosso José Serrano, director of the Police between 1994 and 2000, during Ernesto Samper’s presidency, appears in the two companies involved in the multimillion-dollar plundering.
This is Jorge Serrano Evers, who, according to his networks, was the executive general director of Panama Colon Container Port and is currently the director of New Investments at Shanghai Gorgeous Investment.
The firm in Milan
EL TIEMPO accessed files and reports in Italy where it is stated that there is another son of General Serrano also linked to Kenneth Liang Zhang.
Indeed, according to media such as Forbes Italy, one of the main partners of the cosmetics manufacturing firm Rezet Milano, owned by Franz Serrano Evers, registered in Milan (Italy), is a Chinese man identified as Kenneth Shu Cheung.
It is the same Kenneth Liang Zhang, who apparently presented himself under another identity.
“It is being verified why he used another name in Italy. Kenneth’s former boss also used two identities,” a Colombian intelligence officer told EL TIEMPO.
He added: “On his networks, Franz Serrano shares photos of his partner and he is the same one who was detained in Panama a few weeks ago.”
This newspaper established that it is being verified whether the Asian injected capital into an exclusive club in Panama.
This is Katenar Business Club, whose owner is, in turn, Katenar Inc., a club with a spa and golf courses, located in the financial district of Panama City, which promotes itself as a space for business investments. According to documents from that company in the possession of the Investigative Unit, Franz Serrano and Jorge Serrano appear as executives.
The Bogotá firm
In fact, EL TIEMPO investigated and established that in Colombia the Serrano Evers brothers also created a firm with the same name. The company was registered in October 1998 in Bogotá – when their father was Police director – under the name Consultorías Terranova. Initially, the Serrano brothers appeared, but in 2012 they transferred shares and Franz Serrano became the sole shareholder who registered 30 million pesos in assets and promoted rentals of luxurious homes in the coastal area of Casamar, Panama.
EL TIEMPO contacted lawyer Guillermo Cochez, attorney for Kenneth Liang Zhang, who said he has already approached the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) seeking urgent protection to prevent his client from being extradited. He argues risks of being subjected to torture, ill-treatment, and a trial without procedural guarantees.
‘It’s a geopolitical issue’
Cochez told EL TIEMPO that he also filed an asylum request for his client based on a criminal case previously filed in Panama, but that the Public Ministry of that country confirmed there was no crime because it was a matter of commercial and civil issues.
Furthermore, since there is no extradition agreement between Panama and China, and extradition is discretionary, it should never have been accepted: “The damage being done to Mr. Kenneth Liang is enormous. Ten days detained by the Police, where he barely slept, and now in a large prison with better conditions, but detained for something that is not criminal. It is a geopolitical game by the company filing the complaint, and what they intend is to take over a port. It is a geopolitical matter between Panama and China. And since China has been bothering with the inspection of Panamanian ships, what they are looking for are mechanisms to ingratiate themselves with the Chinese.”
He added: “China is a country that does not respect human rights and is known for not allowing access to a defense and much less to justice that does not respond to the Chinese Communist Party.”
When EL TIEMPO asked how his client ended up investing in a company of Franz Serrano Evers, one of General Rosso José Serrano’s sons, he said: “It is the first time I hear that name. I have not met General Rosso Serrano, but I have heard that they are friends of my client and that he is friends with their children.”
And about Jorge Serrano Evers’ involvement in two of his client’s companies, he said: “I don’t know him, but it is possible they had that link. I have heard that he is the son of General Serrano.”
EL TIEMPO located Franz Serrano in Europe who said he met the Asian in 2017 because his brother Jorge was already working for the business group: “The richest men in the world were part of this. After several years, I asked Kenneth to invest in my cosmetics company. We agreed on 5 million euros of which only 500 thousand entered, all of which passed the controls and filters of the banking system.”
(Check here all the articles from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit)
He added that the investor told him he was going to focus all his resources on defending himself in arbitration courts over corporate disputes.
And about the club in Panama, he assured: “I don’t know if it is operating. I was only the face and Kenneth took care of everything. I hope he can prove his innocence. To me, he is a great businessman and a good person; otherwise, I would be very surprised.”
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
u.investigativa@eltiempo.com
@UinvestigativaET
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