The multimillion-dollar property empire behind the Penthouse Syndicate

3 months ago 19

On paper, Bing “Michael” Li and Zhouyao “Yumi” Chen were little more than a pair of struggling entrepreneurs.

Over five years, between 2018 and 2023, the couple declared a combined income of just over $150,000 at an average of about $15,000 each per year.

Bing “Michael” Li and Zhouyao “Yumi” Chen lived a life of luxury before being charged over their alleged roles in the Penthouse Syndicate.

From 2016 to 2023, the 15 businesses and four companies they individually or jointly ran recorded losses in the hundreds of thousands. At times, Li supplemented what little income he did earn with Centrelink payments. For the Australian Taxation Office and the banks, people like Li and Chen were a dime a dozen.

But despite struggling financially and their businesses hemorrhaging money, Li and Chen managed to not only crack Sydney’s lucrative property market, but make a small fortune from it.

Court documents obtained by the Herald during a months-long investigation into the so-called Penthouse Syndicate detail how Li and Chen over several years allegedly built the foundations of the group, which is accused of defrauding the National Australia Bank of more than $150 million with the help of allegedly corrupted employees on the company’s payroll.

The couple bought and sold $16.8 million worth of Sydney property between 2019 and 2023, including a $6.8 million home in Rose Bay and several in the city’s north-west. Detectives allege Li and Chen pocketed millions from the sale of those properties after funding the purchases with the proceeds of crime. From 2021 to 2025, more than $5.2 million was deposited into the bank account of 28K Development Pty Ltd, a company Chen is a director of, according to the court documents. Yet in 2021 and 2022, the company recorded a total loss of more than $200,000.

Behind the scenes, they lived a lavish life of luxury cars and designer clothing and jewellery. Among Li’s watch collection were some of the most sought-after brands on the market, including several Rolex models, a number of Patek Phillipes, a Richard Mille and a Piaget. All told, the hoard was worth more than $1 million. Still, they flew under the radar.

But when Strike Force Myddleton detectives arrested Li in the $18 million penthouse of the Crown’s residential tower in Barangaroo in late July, the game was up. Li, wearing a $6000 Louis Vuitton bomber jacket, told officers he was a professional gambler. The fortune he’d earned and spent, he explained, came from hours chancing his luck.

By then, though, detectives had followed a trail of millions of dollars linked to the syndicate, slowly piecing together an intricate puzzle of obscure companies, stolen and fraudulent identities, almost 100 accounts spread across several local and international banks, and a network of corrupt bankers, solicitors, mortgage brokers and real estate agents allegedly on the take.

The picture investigators formed of Shanghai-born Li and Chen was far from a pair of battling parents in their late 30s. Instead, they allege, Li and Chen, who was born in the Anhui province of China, had built what is suspected to be one of the largest fraud and money-laundering syndicates in Australia’s history.

The Penthouse Syndicate’s alleged ringleader, Bing “Michael” Li, was arrested in the penthouse of the Crown’s residential tower in July.

Without a trace of legitimate income, more than $15 million had been deposited into Li’s ANZ accounts between 2017 and 2022, according to court documents. Along with the watches found during Li’s arrest, detectives seized Cartier and Chanel jewellery, designer handbags and receipts for $500,000 worth of luxury goods bought in the month before.

“I’ve never seen an array of such high-end watches in any one area,” Gordon Arbinja, commander of the financial crimes squad, told the Herald.

“I’ve never seen the scale of high-end goods like this.”

In September, the Herald revealed several NAB employees were under investigation for allegedly facilitating home and business loans for the syndicate and had been stood down pending the outcome of an internal and police investigation.

The employees are suspected of receiving bribes from the syndicate to approve fraudulent loan applications. They have not been charged. While detectives so far have identified more than $150 million worth of allegedly fraudulent NAB mortgage and business loans they say were paid to the syndicate after being approved by corrupt employees, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fraud has been linked to the syndicate more broadly.

Police believe with the help of corrupt professionals, “complicit mules” have bought tens of millions of dollars worth of property across Sydney on behalf of the syndicate in the past two years.

More members of the Penthouse Syndicate, which has grown over the years to dozens of members, are expected to be arrested and charged as investigations into the group continue. Investigators have shifted their focus from the “mules” allegedly recruited by Li to secure home and business loans for the syndicate, to professionals working on the outskirts of the banking industry, including solicitors, mortgage brokers and real estate agents.

On Wednesday morning, detectives arrested 33-year-old Leo Vo, who they will allege helped the syndicate purchase assets through fraudulent loan applications.

Alleged Penthouse Syndicate member Leo Vo is arrested on Wednesday.

Vo, the fifteenth syndicate member to be arrested, was charged with three counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception over $7.3 million worth of property fraud, participating in a criminal group and dealing with the proceeds of crime. He was granted conditional police bail to appear in Fairfield Local Court in December.

Hours after Vo’s arrest, Chen appeared in court for the first time after her arrest in September, when she was charged with 11 counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and one count of participating in a criminal group.

In court, Chen’s solicitor, Michael Korn, indicated that the 37-year-old, who tried to shield herself from being photographed leaving the John Maddison Tower, would plead not guilty to the charges against her.

Zhouyao “Yumi” Chen outside court on Wednesday.

Li, who remains in custody after several failed bail applications charged with 87 offences, and Chen are both expected to be charged with a raft of other offences as investigators unravel the syndicate’s alleged frauds. Li is alleged to have orchestrated the laundering of millions of dollars.

Detectives have met with Department of Home Affairs officials to determine if Chen, who has applied for permanent residency, is a “fit and proper” person to continue residing in Australia. Citing privacy concerns, the department did not answer questions about the residency status of Chen and several other alleged syndicate members, who are foreign nationals.

To date, the NSW Crime Commission has seized $60 million worth of property, cars and luxury goods linked to Li, Chen and the syndicate, including a five-bedroom Castle Cove home Chen purchased in 2022 for $5.1 million and still owns. The Crime Commission last week began official confiscation proceedings against alleged syndicate members, including Li and Chen, in the Supreme Court.

Minutes after those proceedings were adjourned, Chen, who has been charged over $13 million worth of fraud, took a series of photographs for Korn as he posed on the steps of Sydney’s Law Courts Building. Chen declined to comment when approached by the Herald on several occasions, but acknowledged the seriousness of the charges laid against her and Li.

The NSW Crime Commission has seized $60 million worth of assets linked to the Penthouse Syndicate, including a $5.1 million Castle Cove home owned by Chen.

Li’s mistress, whose identity has been suppressed, was this month granted bail on a dozen charges, including participating in a criminal group, six counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and several offences related to the creation and use of false documents. Detectives allege Li’s mistress, a finance broker, facilitated $4 million worth of fraud for the syndicate.

As investigations into the syndicate continue, detectives have not ruled out arresting other senior members operating alongside Li.

“You never know how long the snake is,” Arbinja said.