Gold Bars, Moldy Cash and a Chinese Official’s Mom Who Can Explain It All

By CHRIS BUCKLEY NEW YORK TIMES

Chinese newspapers provided a valuable life lesson on Friday: If you stumble over 37 kilograms of gold bars and more than 40 boxes holding $20 million or so of moldy cash in a closet, don’t panic! Ask your mother.

Perhaps she left it there and just didn’t tell you. Mothers do that.

That’s the innovative explanation given by the mother of Ma Chaoqun, a once obscure minor official in northern China who has shot to unwelcome fame for the giddying riches that anticorruption investigators say they found in a family home: some 120 million renminbi in cash, the bars of gold, and ownership documents for 68 homes, including seven in expensive parts of Beijing.

It might appear hard to rationalize how Mr. Ma, formerly a manager of a district water supply company in Hebei Province, legitimately amassed such wealth. But on Thursday, after news of Mr. Ma’s downfall came out, his mother rushed forward to explain that the assets really belonged to her late husband, and that she had tucked them away in a closet, apparently a very large one. (One hundred million renminbi in 100 renminbi notes weighs about one metric ton.)

Mr. Ma was the victim of a vicious smear by his boss, the mother, Zhang Guiying, told reporters in the city of Qinhuangdao, where she, Mr. Ma and other members of the family reside.

“My son is very honest,” Ms. Zhang said, according to The Beijing News. “But he has a bad temper.”

Ms. Zhang, who is in her 70s, said that the wealth belonged to her husband, a doctor who died in 2012. He had done a little business on the side.

“My hubbie dealt in sewing machines, medicine, antiques and real estate,” Ms. Zhang said, according to The Beijing Times. “He did business in everything.”

After her husband died, she explained, she bundled the cash in more than 40 boxes, which she sealed with adhesive tape and wrapping paper, and stored the wealth in a home that belonged to her — not, she said, to Mr. Ma.

Naysayers may wonder why she and her husband did not put the money in a bank. But she said her husband preferred to keep the cash handy for his trading and lending.

“My husband thought it was too much trouble going to the bank to get money,” said Ms. Zhang, according to The Mirror, a tabloid published in Beijing. “Some of the money hadn’t been touched for years and was growing moldy,” she said, according to The Beijing News.

In February, the police took away Mr. Ma and his brother, Ma Zhongqun, and their mother became flustered, said the Southern Metropolitan Daily.

“Zhang Guiying explained that the money had nothing to do with Ma Chaoqun and Ma Zhongqun,” said the newspaper. “It was just that she became panicky when her two sons were arrested and feared she wouldn’t be able to give a clear explanation. And then she called over her other children and grandsons and they used two vehicles to move the 40 or so boxes to another home.”

Altogether seven members of the family have been arrested. Ms. Zhang said Ma Chaoqun was the victim of a vendetta because he had been preparing to denounce his superior for embezzling a million renminbi.

But not everyone who knew Mr. Ma doted on him like his mother did, the reports suggested.

“He liked to punch and fight, and usually nobody would dare rile him,” said The Beijing News, quoting Mr. Ma’s friends.

Mr. Ma formerly worked as the general manager of a state-run water company that supplied water to Beidaihe, the seaside resort where Communist Party leaders often take summer breaks, and other areas around Qinhuangdao.

“He had a very bad reputation among local residents,” Xinhua, the state news agency, reported on Thursday.

“He took money from whoever he could,” Xinhua quoted one resident as saying. “If you didn’t give money, he wouldn’t connect your water,” another resident said. “If you didn’t give enough, he would cut off your water.”