Billionaire Xiao Jianhua Jailed For 13 Years in China
A Chinese-Canadian billionaire has been sentenced to 13 years in prison in China and it doesn’t end there as his company has been fined more than $8bn (£6.7bn).
As reported by BBC, Xiao Jianhua and his company Tomorrow Holdings were charged with embezzlement and bribery, a court in Shanghai said.
Xiao – one of China’s richest people – was last seen being whisked away from a luxury hotel in Hong Kong in 2017.
There had been no official word from him since, until the Canadian embassy said in July he would be facing trial.
The trial was said to have started on 4 July.
Xiao and his firm were found guilty of “illegally absorbing public deposits, breaching trust in the use of entrusted property… [and] illegal use of funds,” a statement from the Shanghai court quoted by AFP said.
It also said Tomorrow Holdings was guilty of the “crime of bribery.”
It added that Xiao and his firm had “severely violated the financial management order” and “hurt state financial security”.
The court said Xiao and his company had pleaded guilty and had cooperated with authorities and so their punishment was mitigated.
