Xiao Jianhua, a Canadian-Chinese billionaire whose kidnapping from Hong Kong five years ago sent shockwaves through China’s business community, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison by a Shanghai court after pleading guilty to charges including bribery and illegal handling of funds.
Mr. Xiao used the company he founded, Tomorrow Group, to pay bribes totaling about $100 million over 20 years to unnamed government officials, according to a statement by Shanghai’s No.1 Intermediate People’s Court, released by state media on Friday has been published. It said Mr Xiao had used companies he controlled to illegally collect more than $45 billion in public funds.
Charges of illegal collection of public funds are usually brought against individuals who are accused of selling real estate or raising funds for investments from ordinary people under false pretenses or without the appropriate licenses.
Mr. Xiao was unavailable. Mr. Xiao’s relatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
People smugglers took Mr. Xiao from the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong, where he was living in a serviced apartment, and brought him to mainland China in 2017. He was known for having business ties with Beijing’s political elite.
The court said Mr Xiao’s sentence was reduced in part because he “turned himself in”. The court said he also showed remorse and helped authorities mitigate losses.
Mr Xiao was put on trial in July after years of being held mostly in isolation. Neither relatives nor Canadian diplomats were allowed access to the process.
Human smugglers took Mr. Xiao from the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong in 2017.
Photo: Liau Chung-ren/Zuma Press
The Canadian government said in a statement that it had repeatedly attempted to attend Mr Xiao’s trial but had been refused by the Chinese government. “The lack of transparency in Mr. Xiao’s legal process is of great concern, as is the continued lack of consular access, which prevents us from assessing his well-being,” it said.
Mr. Xiao’s business empire, which was valued at US$5 billion at the time of his disappearance, has been dismantled by Chinese authorities. In 2020, financial regulators in Beijing said they had acquired four insurers, two trust firms, two securities firms and a futures firm that were collectively valued at hundreds of billions of dollars.
The 50-year-old is among a number of high-profile Chinese businessmen targeted as part of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign. His kidnapping, a week after a star Chinese fund manager was convicted of stock-rigging, sparked fears of a political reckoning in the country’s financial sector.
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Appeared in the August 20, 2022 print edition as “In China, billionaire sentenced to 13 years in prison”.