A Chinese Billionaire may have hidden $2B treasure in Mexican desert

Liu Zhongtian toasting his company's IPO in 2009.

Source: Anonymous/AP

It's not every day that Mr. Bean makes an appearance on the Wall Street Journal's commodities coverage.

And that might not even be the strangest finding in the Journal's investigation into a massive pile of aluminum that allegedly just sat there, unused, in the Mexican desert for years.

To start, some background: China's growing industrial sector has been hard on the aluminum producers in the United States. In 2000 there were 23 smelters operating nationwide, now there are only five.

So when an aluminum executive named Jeff Henderson got wind of a giant stockpile of Chinese aluminum just below the U.S border with Mexico, he decided to commission a plane to check it out.

What did they find?

Six percent of the world's aluminum, worth some $2 billion and enough to make 77 billion beer cans, according to the Journal's fascinating report.

The revelation led to tensions between U.S. trade authorities and China, as U.S. industry executives insist that the metal is linked to Liu Zhongtian, who runs China Zhongwang Holdings, an enormous industrial aluminum company.

U.S. industry officials allege the metal got there as part of a scheme to evade trade restrictions. The idea was to move aluminum through Mexico into the U.S. where it could benefit from provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"These things have nothing to do with me," Liu told the Journal, although the results of the investigation cast doubt on that claim.

Aluminum manufacturing is subsidized in China, and so Chinese firms were able to undercut U.S. producers; the United States responded by setting up tariffs to make domestic aluminum more attractive.

Routing Chinese aluminum through Mexico was a way to get around those tariffs.

Things went awry when a one of Liu's alleged business partners Po-Chi "Eric" Shen, started to gain attention over some of his erratic practices, which the Journal report highlighted and included spending fortunes on dubious expenses like $70 million worth of red diamonds and rare Ferraris.

The relationship allegedly deteriorated quickly — Shen made headlines in 2014 when he wrecked Liu's sports car while vacationing in Italy, and was rescued by Rowan Atkinson, of Mr. Bean fame.

The metal may never make it to the United States, in fact there are currently plans to ship it back to Asia, this time Vietnam.

Chinese consortium want Hull takeover to make it 'strongest in England'

The Chinese consortium keen on buying Hull City are still interested in the club and want to make it one of the best in the country.

The club announced in July that takeover talks would be put on hold until after the transfer window had closed in September, after initially opening talks with several interested parties in May.

Representatives of a Chinese consortium watched Hull's opening-day win against Leicester at the KCOM Stadium and it has been reported that current owners the Allam family will sell to a brother and sister partnership of Dai Yongge and Dai Xin Li.

"We have a Chinese club and many years of football experience," Li told the Daily Mail. "We have a love for the game and we want to learn about European football and share the passion of the Premier League.

"We still want Hull City and our ambition is to build the club and make it one of the strongest in England."

The club was put up for sale in 2014 after the FA rejected chairman Assem Allam's bid to change their name to Hull Tigers, a move which was vehemently opposed by the majority of Hull's fans.

The Allam family have since come under increasing pressure from supporters, whose discontent with how the club was being run reached new heights following the departure of former manager Steve Bruce in July.

Bruce had grown increasingly frustrated at the lack of new signings after Hull had won promotion back to the top flight in May and had expressed doubts about his future before Hull's playoff final win against Sheffield Wednesday.