The former chairman of a majority state-owned asset management company has been handed the death sentence following what has been described as one of China’s biggest financial crime cases.
According to state-run press agency Xinhuanet, Lai Xiaomin was chairman of Huarong Asset Management, which was one of four such firms set up by the Chinese government in 1999 in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crash.
He was found guilty of accepting RMB 1.79bn ($276.6m) in bribes, between 2008 and 2018, and convicted of bigamy.
Lai was arrested in 2018 and kicked out of the communist party.
The death sentence was handed down by the Second Municipal Intermediate People’s Court on Tianjin on 5 January.
Lai was ordered to turn over any illicit gains to the state treasury. His personal assets will also be confiscated.
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The court found that Lai took advantage of his various posts in the former China Banking Regulatory Commission and Huarong AM, among others, to assist certain organisations and individuals with various dealings.
This netted him roughly RMB 1.78bn.
He also embezzled and extorted public funds, in collusion with others, adding at least another RMB 25m to his ill-gotten gains.
No details regarding the bigamy charge were reported.
The court concluded that the scale of his crimes undermined the country’s financial security and financial stability.
“The social harm was huge, and the crimes were extremely serious, and he should be severely punished by law,” the court stated.
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