Former Hong Kong actress, Veronica Yip (葉玉卿), retired from the entertainment industry after marrying Chinese-American businessman, Jeffrey Wu (胡兆明), in 1996. Veronica Yip had a daughter and two sons with her husband and settled down in Long Island, New York. Jeffrey Wu’s business portfolio ranges from supermarkets, real estate, to banks. However, it was revealed Jeffrey Wu had filed for personal bankruptcy on July 8. It’s reported three of his properties valued at around 15.3 million USD will be put up for auction. Jeffrey Wu’s properties include a supermarket, “Hong Kong Supermarket” in NYC’s Chinatown, United International Bank, and other real estate properties.
Veronica Yip confirmed the news to Hong Kong media outlet, Oriental Daily News. She said the most important thing right now is her family is healthy and that there aren’t too much changes. She expressed, “The children already have their own trust funds. There isn’t too much to worry. Jeffrey doesn’t have high standards. He is continuing to work. The supermarket has no problems and can operate as usual.”
Veronica Yip also expressed that this bankruptcy filing was not affected by COVID-19. She reveals they had found the wrong mortgage loan company and that the loans were getting higher and harder to pay back. She explained, “They purposely find Chinese people thinking they don’t know the law. When you can’t repay them, they take your property. Jeffrey definitely wouldn’t let them do that. The idea was always to protect the properties that’s why he filed for bankruptcy. Even though this will impact the credibility, but there’s no other way. It might be hard to listen and watch, and very worrisome, but it doesn’t matter! It’s actually less worrisome now, we can protect the lender.”
When asked if she would be unhappy, Veronica Yip said, “Wouldn’t be unhappy. Life is like this. It’s not like an unsolvable problem. It doesn’t regard life or death, health, this is how life is. It’s not like we won’t have a home or car. There are definitely ups and downs in life. This is a very good experience, especially the children. They are very good and supportive. My eldest son is only 19. He is following up on a lot of the documents and discussing them with the lawyer. He also went to the supermarket to help out and is slowly learning about it.”
Veronica Yip said they wouldn’t give up easily and in the end, the hardest to get over is losing face. She expressed, “Sometimes there are things that you need to let go. Like the property in Chinatown, it’s the family’s fortune. He doesn’t want to give it up, but his mood isn’t so bad.”