BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese-Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua, who went missing in Hong Kong five years ago, was due to go on trial in China on Monday, the Canadian embassy in Beijing said.
China-born Xiao, known to have links to China’s Communist Party elite, has not been seen in public since 2017 after he was investigated amid a state-led conglomerate crackdown. The specifics of the probe haven’t been disclosed by officials.
“Global Affairs Canada, our home office, is aware that a trial in the case of Canadian citizen Mr. Xiao Jianhua will take place today,” a Canadian Embassy official told Reuters over the phone in a readout of a statement from Ottawa.
“Canadian consular officials are monitoring this case closely, providing consular services to his family and continue to press for consular access.”
Xiao was ranked 32nd on the 2016 Hurun China rich list, China’s equivalent of the Forbes list, with an estimated net worth of $5.97 billion at the time.
At the centre of Xiao’s empire is the financial group Tomorrow Holdings Co.
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.
In 2021, regulators extended the one-year take-over period of the nine financial enterprises by another year to “further promote risk disposal work and defuse financial risks.”
The extended custody is set to end on July 16.
The seizures were preceded by a takeover of Baoshang Bank in 2019, a lender once controlled by Tomorrow, by regulators, citing severe credit risks.
The lender, which had operated nationwide, was revamped into a much smaller lender back in its home region of Inner Mongolia in northern China.
In recent years, a number of executives at big Chinese companies have been subject to investigation or prosecution amid a broader crackdown on corruption spearheaded by President Xi Jinping that has also ensnared politicians and bankers.
Among those who have fallen from grace was Jiang Jiemin, former head of China National Petroleum Corp, who was sentenced to 16 years for bribery and abuse of power in 2015.
In 2017, Ai Baojun, a former chairman of Baoshan Iron and Steel who had gone on to become vice mayor of Shanghai, was sentenced to 17 years in jail for bribery and graft.
(Reporting by Martin Quin Pollard in Beijing and Meg Shen in Hong Kong; writing by Ryan Woo; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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Its will collect instrest and fees payout till he is release from jail in 3099. Thanks for the donation !!! Lol
U dun kno! De #PowerHouse of Browne, Red, White, Pink & Co, LLC, haffu mix up innah dat.
Ain’t shit the Canadian Government can do not except protect and hide what’s left in Canada(family and assets). They can’t go to nor tell the Chinese government what to do. China 🇨🇳 is not Antigua, Barbuda &?TEDONDA(if we still even own REDONDA).
As for Antigua PM Gaston and ABLP is hoping this doesn’t blow up like R.A. Stanford in their face.
By the Way, if his investments are frozen or tied up by the Chinese how will this affect WIOC?
Waddup #CHOSKI? Fu u Tory, a goh bust #New #Chune soon!
A jus wan Smood Jumbee_Picknee wan fu kno!
I have a very important and key question to ask:
Did our Prime Minister meet up with this Chinese “businessman” on an OFFICIAL capacity, or an UNOFFICIAL private one?
#onbehalfofconcernedcitizensofantigua&Barbuda 🇦🇬
Probly better for WIOC, he can’t collect on his investments. It looks bad but China is a black box anyway. You offend the wrong people and they find charges on you. Look at Jack Ma
@…
…what of his heirs or shareholders of his company(s)?
…was it a private/personal investment, or as a company?
…so, if he goes to prison for life, do the Nation just say, “U sarl to rass?”
#Scarface would be proud…
Fuck you mofo! This shit is all mine now!
What is it about this Antiguan government that all their so-called investors are involved in some shit? Is it because a corrupt government can only sniff out corrupt individuals? When bribery comes before sound investments.
NO WONDER THE CUSTOMS BROKER CANNOT BE TOUCH…..LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN( THAT NO TIEF) CAST THE FIRST STONE.
Next it will be Alex Saab Moran drug trafficker & money launderer who Gaston appointed as economic envoy in 2014, just 3 months after the ALP won the general, is in US custody singing like a cage bird about his activities in antigua and elsewhere.
My question to all Government Officials involved in the West Indies Oil Business Negotiations. What has happen to the over 100 Antigua and Barbuda Passports given to that man? He was kidnap by China from Hong Kong brought to mainland,5 years ago. Now he is being placed on trial in China. Asot did say the exact amount of CIP Passports given to Xiao.Gaston Browne,as Prime Minister,Financed Minister. What the heck happened to those Antigua and Barbuda Passports? Please ask your new Colonial Masters(CHINA) for our Passports. They belong to the Nation.We as a Nation need to know to whom those Passports were sold and or being sold to.
What the heck happened to those Antigua and Barbuda Passports?
They expired,shortly before the expected demise of the recipient.
It is reported that two years ago Mrs. Chinaman was given 15% and the other 10% held by one of Antigua’s dogs. She the holder of all his business transactions with Antigua.
Gaston attracts criminals. The company you keep.
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