China Sentences Tycoon Xiao Jianhua To 13 Years In Prison

A Shanghai court on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, sentenced Chinese-Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua, not seen in public since 2017, to 13 years in jail and fined his Tomorrow Holdings conglomerate 55.03 billion yuan ($8.1 billion), a record in China, Tony Munroe, Ziyi Tang, and Ryan Woo reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: China-born Xiao, known to have links to China's Communist Party elite, was last seen whisked away in a wheelchair from a luxury Hong Kong hotel in the early hours with his head covered.

The tycoon– who disappeared from a luxury hotel in Hong Kong in 2017 – was found guilty of illegally collecting public deposits, using entrusted assets in breach of trust, illegally using funds and bribery, according to a statement by the Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People’s Court on Friday.

Xiao was also personally fined 6.5 million yuan. The sentencing closed the clean-up of Xiao’s financial empire comprising assets worth 3 trillion yuan and is part of Beijing’s ramped-up efforts to control financial risks in recent years, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) also reported.

China-born Xiao, known to have links to China's Communist Party elite, was last seen whisked away in a wheelchair from a luxury Hong Kong hotel in the early hours with his head covered, a source close to the tycoon told Reuters at the time.

Xiao and Tomorrow have "severely violated a financial management order" and "hurt state financial security," the court said, with the tycoon additionally fined 6.5 million yuan for the crimes.

From 2001 to 2021, Xiao and Tomorrow gave shares, real estate, cash and other assets to government officials totaling more than 680 million yuan, to evade financial supervision and seek illegitimate benefits, the court said.

In July 2020, nine of the group's related institutions were seized by Chinese regulators as part of a crackdown on risks posed by financial conglomerates, Ellen Zhang, Eduardo Baptista, and Meg Shen also reported for Reuters.

Among the nine firms were four insurers - Tianan Property Insurance Co of China, Huaxia Life Insurance Co, Tianan Life Insurance Co, and Yi'an P&C Insurance Co - as well as New Times Trust Co and New China Trust Co. The other three were Chengtong Securities, Guosheng Securities, and Guosheng Futures.

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