A court in Shanghai has sentenced Chinese-Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua to 13 years in prison and fined his company $8.1 billion, a record for China.
The trial saw Xiao appear in public for the first time since 2017, when he was taken from his room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong, where he had been staying for several years after fleeing China.
The Shanghai court said that Xiao and Tomorrow Holdings, who has not appeared in public since 2017, were charged with theft of public deposits, illegal use of funds and bribery.
It added that the sentence was reduced because both the Chinese-born Xiao and his company confessed to their crimes and cooperated in returning the illegal gains and returning the losses.
The court said Xiao and his company “seriously violated the financial management system” and “harmed the financial security of the state,” with the business tycoon fined an additional 6.5 million yuan for the crimes.
Canada’s Foreign Ministry said it was aware of media reports of the ruling and that its officials would monitor the case and press for Xiao to be granted a consular visit.
The Hurun report on China’s richest man said that Xiao was a student leader and his fortune before his disappearance amounted to about $6 billion.
The investigation of Xiao and his financial network, which includes more than 40 financial institutions, is part of a larger government effort to crack down on illegal activities and achieve financial stability.
Chinese regulators took control of 9 financial companies linked to Xiaolong in mid-2020, after seizing the financier’s “Baoshang” Bank a year ago, and attributed this to the bank’s “high” credit risk.
In 2018, China’s central bank ranked Xiao Investment Group among several “financial holding companies” that needed scrutiny of their ownership structure, related transactions and funding sources.
The administration of President Xi Jinping is greatly interested in controlling financial risks in an economy facing headwinds of closures due to the Covid virus and the stagnation of the real estate market, as Beijing announced last June the success of its campaign against the corruption of financial institutions, which questioned and punished dozens of officials with the aim of reducing risks. and strengthening corporate governance.
“After the relevant authorities’ investigation, Xiao Jianhua has been accused of previous criminal acts by relevant agencies in China,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Friday in Beijing. criminal according to the law, so he has no right to consular protection for nationals of other countries.”