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BEIJING, Aug. 20 (AP) A Chinese-Canadian tycoon who disappeared from Hong Kong in 2017 was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Friday for a series of multi-billion-dollar financial crimes and his company was fined $8.1 billion, a court announced. Dollar.
The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court said on its social media account that Xiao Jianhua was convicted of embezzling billions of dollars in deposits from banks and insurance companies controlled by Tomorrow Group and paying bribes to officials.
Xiao was fined 6.5 million yuan ($950,000) and his company 55 billion yuan ($8.1 billion), the court said.
Xiao was last seen at a hotel in Hong Kong in January 2017 and is believed to have been brought to the mainland by Chinese authorities. News reports later said he was being investigated by anti-corruption authorities, but no details were released.
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The Canadian government said diplomats were prevented from participating in his July 5 trial.
“The lack of transparency in Mr. Shaw’s legal process is very concerning, and the continued lack of consular visits has prevented us from assessing his health,” said Patricia Skinner, a spokeswoman for Global Affairs Canada.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Xiao was considered a Chinese citizen, meaning he was not authorized to meet Canadian diplomats under the consular treaty between the two governments.
This suggests Xiao may have used Chinese travel documents instead of Canadian passports to enter the mainland. In other cases, Beijing has denied diplomats access to its own citizens using Chinese identity documents.
“China does not recognize Chinese citizens with dual nationality. Xiao Jianhua has Chinese nationality,” Wang said. “He does not have the right to consular protection in other countries.”
The Canadian embassy in Beijing sent a request for comment to the Canadian government in Ottawa.
Tomorrow Group has been linked to a series of anti-corruption prosecutions and seizures of financial companies by regulators.
Xiao and Tomorrow Group were convicted of improperly receiving more than 311.6 billion yuan ($46 billion) from the public and misusing a total of 148.6 billion yuan ($21.8 billion) of entrusted property and funds, the announcement said on Friday.
Xiao disappeared amid a series of indictments against Chinese businessmen accused of misconduct.
This has sparked speculation that the ruling Communist Party may be kidnapping people outside the mainland. Hong Kong at the time barred Chinese police from operating in the former British colony, which had a separate legal system.
Since then, Beijing has tightened its grip on Hong Kong, prompting complaints that it violated the autonomy promised when Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997. The Communist Party implemented a national security law in Hong Kong in 2020 and jailed pro-democracy activists.
Hong Kong police are investigating Xiao’s disappearance and say he crossed the border into the mainland. That same week, an advertisement in Ming Pao’s name in Xiao’s name denied that he was forcibly taken away.
According to the Hurun Report, which follows China’s richest list, Xiao was worth nearly $6 billion when he disappeared, ranking 32nd on China’s richest list.
In 2020, regulators seized nine companies controlled by Xiao.
These include four insurance companies, two securities companies, two trust companies and a company involved in financial futures.
Business magazine Caixin reported at the time that the seized assets totaled nearly 1 billion yuan ($150 million).
Xue Jining, a retired banking regulator, pleaded guilty to taking 400 million yuan ($62 million) in bribes in a corruption case linked to Baoshang Bank Co Ltd in northern Inner Mongolia, which regulators seized from Tomorrow in 2019. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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