(Beijing) A Canadian tycoon of Chinese origin was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Friday for a series of financial crimes and his company was fined 8.1 billion, a Chinese court announced.
Posted at 6:21 a.m.
Xiao Jianhua was found guilty of embezzling billions of dollars in deposits with banks and insurers and offering bribes to officials, Shanghai Intermediate People’s Court No. social network account.
Mr Xiao was last seen in a Hong Kong hotel in January 2017 and was reportedly taken to mainland China by Chinese authorities. News outlets later reported that he was being investigated by anti-corruption authorities, but no details were released.
The Canadian government said diplomats were barred from attending his July 5 trial.
Tomorrow Group, a company controlled by Xiao Jianhua, has been linked to a series of anti-corruption lawsuits and seizures of financial companies by regulators.
Xiao Jianhua has disappeared amid a wave of lawsuits against Chinese businessmen accused of misconduct.
This fueled speculation that the ruling Communist Party could abduct people outside the mainland. Hong Kong then banned Chinese police from operating in the former British colony, which has a separate legal system.
Since then, Beijing has tightened control over Hong Kong, sparking complaints that it is violating the autonomy promised when the territory was handed over to China in 1997. The Communist Party imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 and imprisoned pro-democracy activists.
Hong Kong police investigated Xiao Jianhua’s disappearance and said he had crossed the border to the mainland.
At the time of his disappearance, Mr Xiao was worth almost 6 billion, making him the 32e richest person in China, according to the Hurun report which lists the richest people in the country.
In 2020, regulators seized nine companies controlled by Xiao.