Chapter 871: Traps Everywhere
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“What?!” Gu Yanran and Jin Wanyi both asked, almost in unison.
Compared to Gu Yanran and Jin Wanyi’s shock, Gu Nianzhi’s calmness was extremely striking. She flipped the inheritance list and pointed at the other row of figures. “This will be the cost basis value on the day of the accident.”
“Ah!” Gu Yanran gasped. “What do you mean?” Then, she nudged Jin Wanyi. “Lawyer Jin, you tell her. This is not reasonable!”
Jin Wanyi also felt that Gu Nianzhi was not being reasonable by saying that. Therefore, she helped Gu Yanran out on this.
“Lawyer Gu, we are able to stand here and fight this case because Mr. Gu Xiangwen had already been in a vegetative state for a total of seven years. According to the law, after he had entered a vegetative state for seven years, then he would be deemed as being unable to handle his own a.s.sets. With that, he would have to give up controlling rights of his inheritance. That was why you were able to bring a case out of this—because of this seven year rule. As for seven years ago, that inheritance belonged to Mr. Gu Xiangwen. It had nothing to do with you. Therefore, you are unable to get control of it.”
Jin Wanyi said the words according to the law. Therefore, the judge agreed with her.
When Gu Nianzhi was being objected to by the defendant’s lawyer and the judge together, she did not get upset. On the contrary, she nodded calmly and said, “Then Lawyer Jin meant that seven years ago, the inheritance from the Gu family still belonged to my father, Gu Xiangwen, and no one should be able to have any right to handle it, am I right?”
Jin Wanyi was stunned for a moment. Gu Nianzhi’s words sounded reasonable. It was a natural a.s.sumption from what Jin Wanyi had said just now. However, when one gave it a little more thought, it seemed like Gu Nianzhi was building a trap for Gu Yanran again…
Jin Wanyi hesitated. She looked at Gu Yanran and then back at Gu Nianzhi and said hesitantly, “This question is slightly challenging…”
“Why is it challenging?” Gu Nianzhi continued, “I said that we should follow the valuation of all the inheritance before the accident happened. You said that I was unable to do that, because during these seven years, my father, Gu Xiangwen, was still the legal owner of all the inheritance, and no one was able to handle his inheritance without his approval or permission. This should mean that for the past seven years, no one should have been able to use, give, gift, spend, and splurge any of the inheritance. Am I right?”
Jin Wanyi shut her mouth. Gu Nianzhi was too cruel. If they did not agree to calculate the inheritance based on its valuation before the accident, then Gu Yanran should never have used anything of the inheritance other than the part that she was given?!
However, Jin Wanyi was clear that the moment Gu Xiangwen had entered a vegetative state seven years ago, Gu Yanran had been the only person to handle all the Gu family’s inheritance. She had done many things with the inheritance in those seven years. Be it investments, donations, expenses, splurging, or gifting, she had spent a good part of it.
Over those seven years, all the banks and investment organizations all thought that Gu Yanran was the only person to inherit everything from Gu Xiangwen. Therefore, even if Gu Xiangwen was still alive, they had also recognized Gu Yanran’s signature and helped her in many things.
Now, a second inheritor, Gu Nianzhi, had appeared. Ignoring whether she was the biological or adoptive daughter, no matter what, legally, she was Gu Xiangwen’s daughter. This was approved in the governmental doc.u.ments in Barbados.
Gu Xiangwen’s will still hadn’t been found to date. Therefore, Gu Xiangwen’s inheritance could only be divided according to the law. And before dividing inheritances, one would have to confirm their valuation first, which meant that they would know how much exactly they would be getting.
However, as to how they should calculate that valuation, both sides had different opinions again, as everyone knew that there was a huge difference in the valuation before and after seven years.
Jin Wanyi lowered her head and looked carefully at the inheritance list that Ye Xuan had provided. She realized that there were indeed many areas that had traps. The biggest one would be the valuation.
This list had two valuations. One was the valuation seven years ago, on the day the accident happened, and another one was the valuation after Gu Xiangwen had entered a vegetative state for seven years.
The two valuations were as far apart as a galaxy…
Of course, that was exaggerating. Let us put it this way: When Gu Xiangwen had just met with the accident seven years ago, the Gus had a total of 30 billion US dollars worth of inheritance. However, seven years later, there was only about ten billion US dollars worth of inheritance left. There was about 70 percent less.
However, if they were to agree, Gu Nianzhi would definitely want that 70 percent of the inheritance back, wouldn’t she?! Therefore, no matter how they answered, Gu Nianzhi would have a trap for them to fall into!
Jin Wanyi tried to think quickly for a reason to delay their answers. Gu Yanran was panicking. She could never allow Gu Nianzhi to claim the 20 billion US dollars worth of inheritance from her…
“Lawyer Jin, why aren’t you saying anything? I have spent so much to retain you, not to let you be a coward at important times like this,” Gu Yanran complained softly and almost wanted to push Jin Wanyi out to shoot Gu Nianzhi until she had nothing to say.
Jin Wanyi pursed her lips and controlled her anger before saying, “Can’t you see that I am trying my best to think now?!”
Gu Nianzhi admired Gu Yanran and Jin Wanyi’s whisperings for a while before walking over and tilting her head. “h.e.l.lo, both of you? Are you done yet? We can either pursue how the Gu family’s inheritance was being cheated, or we can divide the inheritance according to the valuation seven years ago. Gu Yanran will think of ways to return the inheritance that she spent over the past seven years.”
Seeing that Jin Wanyi was not about to say anything, Gu Yanran ran out of patience and stood up to rebut Gu Nianzhi. “Don’t try to scare people. I am the legal heir of all of the Gu family’s a.s.sets. My father lost his ability to manage his a.s.sets, so why can’t I manage everything in his place? Do you also suspect the legal effects of corporate agreements? Those were signed before my father got into that accident!”
Gu Nianzhi folded her arms and looked down at Gu Yanran. She smiled as she said, “Of course the agreement was valid before father met with that accident. Gu Yanran, you stop trying to confuse everyone and divert their attention. What I was trying to say was in regards to the new agreements after father got into that accident. Do you want me to count how many there are for you? Also, I have created a spreadsheet showing where 70 percent of the inheritance went. Do you want to take a look?”
These spreadsheets were all created using the information about the inheritance that Ye Xuan had provided. Gu Nianzhi opened another excel spreadsheet on her laptop.
She picked up her laser pointer and began a.n.a.lyzing the spreadsheet for everyone.
“For the past seven years, defendant Gu Yanran used her name to sign 167 agreements. Of those, 60 percent suffered losses, which led to the Gu family’s inheritance suffering a loss of three billion US dollars.
“On top of that, Gu Yanran forged Gu Xiangwen’s signature and signed 83 agreements. Of those, ten percent suffered losses. The Gu family’s a.s.sets earned a profit of three billion US dollars from these agreements. We can say that these agreements managed to cover the losses that Gu Yanran incurred with her bad choices in investments.”
Gu Nianzhi paused there and then began to explain, “It was clear that the investors who signed the agreements still respected my father, Gu Xiangwen, more, as the agreements that were signed in his name were treated seriously, and no tricks were pulled. Although Gu Yanran had broken the law by forging his signature, that will be another lawsuit for another day. For now, based on the benefit of the a.s.sets, the agreements on the inheritance list did not suffer a loss.”
Gu Yanran was struggling extremely hard by now, and it could be seen all over her face.
Gu Nianzhi lowered her head, took the mouse, and scrolled downwards. “Gu Yanran began selling the patents four years ago. Within these four years, Gu Yanran sold a total of 77 patents at a tremendous loss. I said that they were sold at a tremendous loss because according to market value, these patents were worth at least five billion US dollars. However, Gu Yanran sold all of them at a total of only 100 million US dollars. That would be a difference of 50 times their value. Moreover, Gu Yanran had no right to sell my father, Gu Xiangwen’s patents, at all.”
Gu Nianzhi paused and continued, “I went to the executive of the trust funds to get a copy of the doc.u.ments that were drawn up when the trust fund was set up. The doc.u.ments stated clearly that the patents were never to be sold. If they had to be sold, the rules of the trust fund had to be altered first. However, obviously, this was not done. Therefore, the 77 patents that Gu Yanran sold at a huge loss must be taken back.”
Gu Yanran raised her head abruptly and laughed coldly. “Oh, then that would be too bad. When I was selling the patents, these people did not say anything about not being able to sell these patents.”
Gu Nianzhi looked at her with a straight face. “The trust fund confirmed that the agreement stated that what was sold was the right to use the patents, not owners.h.i.+p. They included the date of validity on the doc.u.ments where you sold the patents. Those that you had sold had a due date during the seventh year after my father got into that accident.”
Gu Yanran’s eyes narrowed. “Are you serious?!”
“Don’t you know how to read those doc.u.ments yourself?” Gu Nianzhi rolled her eyes at her. “Well, that would be understandable. So many laws; they would be different compared to your major when you were at the housekeeper’s college, wouldn’t they? That was why you couldn’t understand them, wasn’t it?”
Gu Yanran’s face turned a deep crimson. “I have my own group of lawyers. I…” She suddenly remembered that Wen Shouyi was the one who prepared the laws, rules, and regulations when she had sold the patents. Wen Shouyi was her representative lawyer at that time. However, Wen Shouyi had never once mentioned to her the difference between the right to use and owners.h.i.+p? She had only cared about collecting her fees…
Now that Wen Shouyi had left, how could she get her explanation?! Gu Yanran began to panic.
Gu Nianzhi chuckled and turned around to scroll down a portion of the spreadsheet again. “Take a look, everyone. The biggest suspicious point is actually here. Within a span of seven years, Gu Yanran donated about 15 billion US dollars in cash to this charity organization called ‘Angel in the World.’”
The court fell silent. Everyone was looking at the crazy amount, mouths agape.
“Donating to charity is not something that is wrong. I would not say that she had donated too much, either. If it was really meant for a charity, then so be it. I could understand, and I would support it as well. However, I was curious, so I did a background check on this charity to see what this organization had that would successfully make Gu Yanran donate such a huge amount to them.”
Gu Nianzhi clicked with the mouse again. At that moment, the projector showed the founder of “Angels in the World” and the location of the organization’s founding. The projector was also showing the location where this charity began its work, as well as the organization’s vision and foundation.