officials went to his house. At the time Lai was not home, but his sister was. The officials asked for business accounts, but she refused to give in. She was then beaten severely and sent to the hospital. The officials then started a tax fraud case. Lai would win in court, but his revenge campaign against Communist officials would tie up his businesses. Lai left Shaocuo and from this point on. Yuanhua group In 1994 Lai founded Fairwell Group, also known as Yuanhua Group (), a prominent group of upstart companies that took advantage of the economic boom of Xiamen's status as a Special Economic Zone. The group was heavily involved in the importing/smuggling of cars, cigarettes and oil. The group invested heavily in the city's real estate, hotels, clubs, roads and other infrastructure. Lai also has his own brand of Fairwell cigarettes. In the mid 1990s Xiamen no longer regulated maximum building heights. Many rich businessmen tried to build the tallest skyscrapers. Lai built the 88-floor Yuanhua tower and the Yuanhua International Centre with a groundbreaking ceremony attended by 2000 guests. Each guest received a 3000-yuan red envelope. Lai had prominent connections with the Fujian power elite; he was also a member of the Provincial Consultative Conference. Lai was believed to be the mastermind of a US$10 billion scheme, during which he allegedly bribed high level officials in the administration of the Xiamen Special Economic Zone in order to smuggle luxury cars and entire tanker-loads of oil into the country. The smuggling ring fraudulently avoided US$3.6 billion in taxes and fees. Chinese authorities do not comment on allegations that Lai's Yuanhua group was also a conduit for clandestine military shipments, such as Silkworm missiles. In 1996 Xiamen airport's terminal building 2, funded by Lai, was one of the biggest airport structure in the country. In 1997 Xiamen's party secretary even made him an honorary citizen (). In 1998 he spent two million yuan to purchase a football team based in Foshan, Guangzhou and disbanded the team. He then moved all the players to Xiamen to create the Xiamen Lanshi F.C., and helped the team promote to the Chinese Super League. He even made his own film starring himself as a football star to improve his image. He built a 7-story building called the Red Mansion (), named after the classical story Dream of a Red Mansion. The mansion hired