Article Author:
Associated Press
Joe McDonald
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese-born Canadian businessman missing from Hong Kong in 2017 sentenced to billions of dollars in jail Friday 13 sentenced to a year in prison. A string of financial crimes has resulted in his company being fined $8.1 billion, the court announced.
Xiao Jianhua was found guilty of misappropriating billions of dollars in deposits from Tomorrow Group-controlled banks and insurance companies and offering bribes to officials, according to the Shanghai First Intermediate. The People's Court said on its social media accounts.
Xiao was fined his 6.5 million yuan ($950,000) and his company paid his 55 billion yuan ($8.1 billion) fine, according to the court. was sentenced to
Xiao was last seen in a Hong Kong hotel in January 2017 and is believed to have been abducted to the mainland by Chinese authorities. He is reportedly under investigation by anti-corruption authorities, but details have not been released.
The Canadian government said the diplomat was blocked from attending his July 5 trial.
Tomorrow Group has been implicated in a series of anti-corruption prosecutions by regulators and seizures of financial firms.
Xiao and Tomorrow Group illicitly obtained more than 311.6 billion yuan ($46 billion) from the public and entrusted property and money totaling 148.6 billion yuan ($21.8 billion), according to an announcement Friday. ) was convicted of misappropriation.
Xiao disappeared amid a spate of prosecutions of Chinese businessmen accused of cheating.
This fueled speculation that the ruling Communist Party may be kidnapping people outside the mainland. activity was prohibited.
Since then, Beijing has stepped up its control over Hong Kong, sparking complaints that it violated the autonomy promised when Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997. pro-democracy activist.
Hong Kong police investigated Xiao's disappearance and said he had crossed the border into the mainland. That same week, an advertisement in the Ming Pao newspaper under Shao's name denied that Shao had been taken against his will.
By that time, Xiao's fortune had reached nearly $6 billion, making him the 32nd richest person in China, according to the Hurun Report, which tracks China's wealthy.
In 2020, regulators seized nine of his companies controlled by Xiao.
Among them were four insurance companies, two securities companies, two trust companies, and one financial futures company. Business magazine Caixin reported at the time that the total amount of seized assets was about 1 billion yuan ($150 million).
Former banking regulator Xue Jining is accused of a 400 million yuan ($62 million) bribe in a corruption case involving Baoshang Bank in the northern region of Inner Mongolia, which regulators seized from Tomorrow in 2019. Admitted to accepting bribes.
