Chinese Canadian Billionaire Sentenced to 13 Years for Financial Crimes

Representative image

Xiao Jianhua, a Chinese Canadian billionaire and onetime trusted financier to China’s ruling elite, was sentenced to 13 years in prison Friday, and his company fined $8 billion, after he pleaded guilty to bribery and other crimes that authorities said had “seriously jeopardized” the country’s financial security.

Xiao, whose Tomorrow Group umbrella of companies was once worth hundreds of billions of dollars, was also fined $1 million, a Shanghai court said Friday.

One of several Chinese business tycoons caught in the crosshairs of a crackdown on corruption, Xiao was snatched from his home in a luxury Hong Kong hotel in 2017 and disappeared into Chinese custody. There was no news of him until 2020, when Chinese officials confirmed he was on the mainland and cooperating with the government in restructuring his businesses. Last month, he reemerged to stand trial in a Shanghai court, but authorities kept details of the charges against him a secret.

His trial, which began July 4, was attended by top Chinese officials, including deputies to the National People’s Congress and members of the China People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s state news media reported Friday. Xiao and his business relationships — which reached as high as the family members of China’s top leader, Xi Jinping — were once an illustration of the close ties between China’s business world and the political elite.

The Tomorrow Group empire came to symbolize the excesses of China Inc., and its demise in 2020 was a signal from regulators that an era of freewheeling finance — in which wealthy executives used their political connections to build huge companies that scooped up trophy assets at home and abroad — was over.

The Shanghai First Intermediate Court said Friday that Xiao had been convicted of several charges, including illegally absorbing public funds, betraying the use of entrusted property, and illegally using funds and bribery. Xiao had “surrendered, admitted guilt and accepted punishment,” it said, adding that he also cooperated in helping to recover stolen funds.

Tomorrow Group did not respond to a request for comment, and Xiao did not immediately respond to a request for comment through an intermediary.

The Canadian government said Chinese authorities had repeatedly denied attempts to attend the trial of Xiao, who holds Canadian citizenship.

“The lack of transparency in Mr. Xiao’s legal process is very concerning, as is the ongoing lack of consular access which prevents us from being able to assess his well-being,” Patricia Skinner, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, the international affairs arm of the Canadian government, said in an emailed statement.

A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said Friday that China does not recognize dual citizenship. “Xiao Jianhua is charged by relevant organs in China according to China’s law,” said Wang Wenbin, a ministry spokesperson.

Using Tomorrow Group, Xiao built up financial ties in companies that stretched into all areas of China’s economy, from banking and insurance to rare metals, coal, and real estate. It had financial stakes in some of China’s biggest firms, including insurer Ping An and financial institutions like Huaxia Bank, Industrial Bank, and Harbin Bank.

The court Friday said that between 2001 and 2021, Xiao and Tomorrow Group used shares, real estate holdings and other assets worth $100 million to bribe government officials and evade financial supervision.

“The criminal acts of Tomorrow Groups and Xiao Jianhua seriously damaged the financial management order, seriously jeopardized the national financial security, seriously infringed on the integrity of the state staff, and should be severely punished according to law,” the court said in its statement Friday.

Xiao would eventually become ensnared in an anti-corruption drive waged by the man who took charge of China in 2012, Xi.

But the two had a prior connection. Xiao had previously bought shares in an investment company owned by the sister of Xi and her husband, according to a New York Times investigation. At the time, a spokeswoman for Xiao told The Times that the couple “did it for the family.”

(Author: Alexandra Stevenson)/(c.2021 The New York Times Company)