Chinese Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua, who went missing in Hong Kong five years ago, was scheduled to be tried in China on Monday, according to the Canadian Embassy in Beijing.
Known to be associated with the Chinese Communist Party’s elite, China-born Xiao hasn’t been seen in public since 2017 after being investigated during a crackdown on a state-led conglomerate. The details of the probe have not been disclosed by the authorities.
“Our home office, Global Affairs Canada, recognizes that the trial of Canadian citizen Xiao Jianhua will take place today,” a Canadian embassy official called Reuters in a statement from Ottawa. Told.
“Canadian Consulate officials are closely monitoring the incident and continue to provide consulate services to his family and seek access to the consulate.”
Xiao was ranked 32nd on the 2016 Hurun China Rich List. That’s the equivalent of China’s Forbes list, with an estimated net worth of $ 5.97 billion at the time.
At the heart of Xiao’s empire is the financial group Tomorrow Holdings Co.
In July 2020, nine of the Group’s affiliates were seized by Chinese regulatory authorities as part of cracking down on the risks posed by the financial conglomerate.
In 2021, regulatory agencies extended the one-year acquisition period of nine financial companies by another year to “further accelerate risk-handling work and mitigate financial risk.”
Extended storage is scheduled to end on July 16th.
Prior to the foreclosure, Baoshang Bank was acquired in 2019. This is a lender that was once controlled by Tomorrow by regulatory agencies because of serious credit risk.
The nationwide lenders have returned to their hometown of Inner Mongolia in northern China and have been converted into much smaller lenders.
In recent years, the crackdown on corruption led by President Xi Jinping has expanded, and politicians and bankers have been trapped, and many executives of major Chinese companies have been investigated and prosecuted.
Among those who lost their grace was Jiang Jiemin, a former head of the China National Petroleum Corporation, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison for bribery and abuse of power in 2015.
In 2017, Baoshan Iron & Steel’s former chairman and deputy mayor of Shanghai, Aiyama Iron & Steel, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for bribery and requisition.
follow