Disappeared in 2017 under mysterious circumstances: Chinese-born Canadian tycoon Xiao Jianhua, once known to be close to top communist leaders, was sentenced in China on Friday to 13 years in prison for fraud.
Xiao Jianhua was one of the richest men in the country at the time and the founder of the Tomorrow conglomerate, an empire with diverse interests including banking, real estate and insurance.
Until his disappearance, Xiao Jianhua lived in Hong Kong in an apartment at a multi-star hotel, the Four Seasons, which had a reputation as a haven for Chinese business tycoons.
According to press reports at the time, the billionaire was kidnapped in late January 2017 by Beijing agents, in defiance of Hong Kong laws that then prohibited Chinese police from operating in the semi-autonomous territory.
The case had caused a stir in the former British colony, which has a different legal framework than the one in mainland China.
Links with communist leaders
Since Mr. Xiao’s disappearance, little information had been leaked and the Chinese authorities remained silent on the matter.
However, the Canadian Embassy in Beijing had confirmed last month the opening of a trial, but without specifying the charges against its national. No diplomats were allowed in the audience.
Therefore, Mr. Xiao does not “benefit from the right to consular protection,” he explained during a daily press conference.
On Friday, the court sentenced the businessman to 13 years in prison. He was found guilty of “embezzlement of public funds”, “illegal use of funds” and corruption, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court where the businessman was tried said in a press release.
Xiao Jianhua is also fined 6.5 million yuan (about 946,000 euros). The Tomorrow conglomerate is condemned to pay about 55,000 million yuan (8,000 million euros).
According to media reports, the tycoon had close ties with senior leaders of the ruling Communist Party (CCP) in China.
Fall of a billionaire
The businessman may have been a victim of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, which critics say also serves to target his political opponents and supporters.
The Xiao Jianhua case recalls the “disappearance” in 2015 of five Hong Kong booksellers known for publishing books with lewd content about the Chinese political class.
All had disappeared to resurface in mainland China, in the hands of the authorities.
One of them, Lam Wing-kee, was allowed to return to Hong Kong, pick up his bookstore’s customer list, and return to China. But instead he had summoned the press to deliver explosive revelations about what had happened to him.
Coming from a poor background, Xiao Jianhua, after studying at the prestigious Peking University, started out selling computers. He was once one of the richest men in China, thanks to the Tomorrow group he founded.
According to the Hurun ranking of Chinese billionaires, the tycoon’s fortune was estimated at around six billion dollars in 2017, the year of his disappearance.
Source: BFM TV
