Factbox: Evergrande founder joins list of Chinese tycoons investigated, arrested

China Renaissance Holdings

29/09/2023 08:06

Sept 29 (Reuters) - The founder of China Evergrande
 3333.HK , the world's most indebted property developer, is
being investigated for "illegal crimes", a fresh challenge for
the tycoon and his embattled company as it struggles to stay
afloat.
     Hui Ka Yan, 64, who founded Evergrande in 1996 in the
southern Chinese province of Guangdong, is the latest tycoon to
come under scrutiny since Chinese President Xi Jinping took
power in 2012. 
    Following is a list of some other high-profile Chinese
executives who have been investigated or arrested under Xi's
leadership.
   
    ZHAO WEIGUO, FORMER CHAIRMAN OF TSINGHUA UNIGROUP
    In March, the former chairman of the chip conglomerate was
charged with crimes including corruption and illegally earning
profits for his friends and family. 
    Originating as a branch of China's prestigious Tsinghua
University, state-backed Tsinghua Unigroup emerged in the
previous decade as a would-be domestic champion for China’s
laggard chip industry. 
    But the company racked up debt under Zhao. It spent billions
on chip-related acquisitions but also unrelated, unprofitable
businesses ranging from real estate to online gambling that
eventually led it to default on bond payments in late 2020 and
face bankruptcy. 
    
    BAO FAN, FOUNDER OF CHINA RENAISSANCE 
    The founder of China Renaissance Holdings  1911.HK  was
detained in February and the investment bank said in August he
was co-operating with authorities as investigations continued.
    It was unclear what the investigation was related to. Bao,
who previously worked at Credit Suisse Group and Morgan Stanley,
has been hailed as one of China's best-connected bankers,
involved with major technology mergers including the tie-up of
ride-hailing firms Didi and Kuaidi, food delivery giants Meituan
and Dianping. 
    His whereabouts are unknown. 
    
    XIAO JIANHUA, FOUNDER OF TOMORROW HOLDINGS
    Xiao has not been seen in public since 2017. In 2022, he was
sentenced to 13 years in jail and his Tomorrow conglomerate was
fined 55.03 billion yuan ($8.1 billion) by a Shanghai court.
    The Chinese-Canadian billionaire, known to have links to
China's Communist Party elite, was whisked away in a wheelchair
from a luxury Hong Kong hotel in the early hours with his head
covered, a source close to the tycoon told Reuters at the time.
    The Shanghai court said at sentencing that Xiao and Tomorrow
gave shares, real estate, cash and other assets to government
officials totalling more than 680 million yuan for two decades
from 2001 to 2021, to evade financial supervision and seek
illegitimate benefits.
    
    CHEN FENG, CHAIRMAN, AND TAN XIANGDONG, CEO, HNA GROUP  
    Chen and Tan of HNA Group were taken away by Chinese police
due to suspected criminal offences in 2021 when HNA Group, once
one of China's most acquisitive overseas buyers, was placed
under bankruptcy administration.
    In the 2010s, HNA Group, whose flagship business is Hainan
Airlines  600221.SS , had used a $50 billion global acquisition
spree, mainly fuelled by debt, to build an empire with stakes in
businesses from Deutsche Bank  DBKGn.DE  to Hilton Worldwide. 
    
    WU XIAOHUI, CHAIRMAN OF ANBANG INSURANCE GROUP  
    Wu was prosecuted for economic crimes in early 2018 after
China's insurance regulators found Anbang, an
insurance-to-property conglomerate, had violated laws and
regulations which "may seriously endanger the solvency of the
company."
    Prosecutors also seized control of the group.
    Wu was arrested in June 2017 amid Beijing’s campaign to
curtail big-spending conglomerates as it cracked down on
financial risk. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison in May
2018 for fraud and embezzlement.
    
    YE JIANMING, FOUNDER OF CEFC CHINA ENERGY 
    In 2017, Ye's CEFC agreed to buy a nearly $9.1 billion stake
in Russian oil major Rosneft. A year later, he was investigated
for suspected economic crimes and disappeared from public view
in March 2018. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters at
the time he had been taken in for questioning.
    His conglomerate has now been dismantled under a mountain of
debt in a remarkable fall from grace for the businessman who
ranked second in Fortune magazine's "40 Under 40" list of the
world’s most influential young people in 2016.     

 (Reporting By Kane Wu and Selena Li in Hong Kong, compiled by
Anne Marie Roantree; editing by Miyoung Kim and Lincoln Feast)
 ((annemarie.roantree@thomsonreuters.com; +852 97387151; Reuters
Messaging: annemarie.roantree.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))