August 19, 2022
image source,Chinese University of Hong Kong
Xiao Jianhua was ranked 32nd on the Hurun Report in 2016. In early 2017, he mysteriously disappeared from Hong Kong, which attracted widespread attention both inside and outside China.
China’s Shanghai court announced that billionaire Xiao Jianhua, a Canadian citizen, was convicted of multiple financial crimes and bribery and sentenced to 13 years in prison.
The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court sentenced on Friday (August 19) that the actions of Xiao Jianhua and his Tomorrow Holdings Co., Ltd. constituted the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits, the crime of breaching trust in the use of entrusted property, the crime of illegal use of funds, and the crime of bribery by units. Tomorrow Holdings was sentenced to a fine of 55.03 billion yuan ($8.085 billion); Xiao Jianhua was sentenced to 13 years in prison and a fine of 6.5 million yuan.
Xiao Jianhua disappeared from Hong Kong in February 2017 and was later confirmed to be detained in mainland China. The case begins on July 4, 2022. The Canadian embassy in China said that it had repeatedly requested to observe, but the Chinese side refused.
China’s foreign ministry said Xiao Jianhua’s foreign nationality was not recognized and he was not entitled to foreign consular protection.
“It has been verified with relevant parties that Xiao Jianhua is being prosecuted by the judicial authorities in accordance with the law for being suspected of a criminal offense,” Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said at a regular news briefing on Friday.
“According to the Nationality Law of the People’s Republic of my country, our country does not recognize dual nationality of Chinese citizens. Xiao Jianhua has Chinese nationality, and China will try its own citizens for criminal acts in accordance with the law, and they do not enjoy the right to consular protection in other countries.”
The news of the trial of Xiao Jianhua’s case in early July was first disclosed by the Canadian embassy in China.
Xiao Jianhua, a Canadian citizen, disappeared from Hong Kong in early 2017.
In early December 2018, the Ottawa authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of the founder of China’s Huawei, in response to a US judicial extradition request. China later arrested Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, respectively, and charged them with espionage.
In September 2021, Canada and China each released three people. In early 2022, China lifted its ban on imports of Canadian canola, and the outside world waited to see whether relations between the two countries might improve.
Who is Xiao Jianhua?
image source,BBC News Chinese
Hong Kong newspapers had published a statement on the front page of what was said to be from Xiao Jianhua himself, denying his disappearance.
Xiao Jianhua was born in 1971 in a family of ordinary teachers in Nanxiahui Village, Anjiazhuang Town, Feicheng City, Shandong Province. He was admitted to the Law Department of Peking University at the age of 15, became the chairman of the Peking University Student Union at the age of 18, and became the general manager of the listed company Huazi Industrial at the age of 27. At the age of three, he controlled four listed companies.
In 2016, Xiao Jianhua and his wife Zhou Hongwen ranked 32nd on the Hurun Report with 40 billion yuan.
Xiao Jianhua acts in a low-key manner, and is best known as the head of the “Tomorrow Department”. He not only holds shares and holds dozens of listed companies, but also builds a complete financial industry chain covering securities, banking, insurance, trust, futures, funds, etc.
And it all started in 1996, when he was just 25 years old. In 1999 he founded Tomorrow Holdings.
Online information shows that Tomorrow Holdings is “one of the earliest companies engaged in equity investment in China, and is committed to building a respected and sustainable global investment institution”. According to media reports in China, Tomorrow, as a behemoth in the capital market, relies on strict internal confidentiality mechanisms, public relations teams, media control and other means to remain invisible for a long time.
The outside world is widely believed to have built a huge financial empire in just 20 years, thanks in large part to his political ties to the Chinese government and the top ranks of the Communist Party.
On January 27, 2017, Xiao Jianhua, a permanent resident of Hong Kong and Canadian nationality, was taken away from the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong in a wheelchair, which once became the focus of media attention.
What does the Shanghai court say regarding its case?
image source,AFP
The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court did not announce the opening of the Xiao Jianhua case beforehand.
Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate CourtAnnouncement via social media, the court found that Tomorrow Holdings was incorporated in 1999, and Xiao Jianhua was the actual controller of Tomorrow Holdings. Since 2004, Tomorrow Holdings and Xiao Jianhua “adopted means of decentralized equity, multi-level holdings, and anonymous holdings” to actually control New Era Trust, Tianan Property & Casualty Insurance, Tianan Financial Exchange Center, Baoshang Bank, Huaxia Life Insurance, Tianan Life Insurance, Yi’an Yi’an Property Insurance and many other financial institutions and Internet financial platforms.
The court found that Xiao Jianhua and Tomorrow Holdings sold actively managed collective fund trust products, sold investment insurance products in excess of the sales ratio and sales scale, sold personal and legal person wealth management products, and illegally absorbed more than 311.6 billion yuan of funds; unauthorized use of customer funds and The entrusted property was more than 148.6 billion yuan; the insurance funds were transferred to Mingli Holdings through direct or indirect purchase of trust plans, and the illegal use of funds was more than 190.9 billion yuan. Tomorrow Holdings will mainly use the above-mentioned criminal and illegal proceeds for the acquisition of financial institutions, securities transactions, and overseas investments.
In addition, in order to evade financial supervision and seek other illegitimate interests, the defendant and the defendant unit bribed a number of state officials with bribes of shares, real estate, cash and other property, amounting to a total of more than 680 million yuan. The case will be dealt with separately.
Accordingly, the court determined that the actions of Xiao Jianhua and Tomorrow Holdings constituted the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits, using entrusted property in breach of trust, using funds illegally, and committing bribery by units. The integrity of the post should be severely punished in accordance with the law.”
However, the court also held that “Tomorrow Holdings and Xiao Jianhua had the circumstances of surrendering, pleading guilty and accepting punishment, and cooperating in recovering stolen goods and restoring damages. Xiao Jianhua also performed meritorious service and might be punished leniently in accordance with the law.”
Before that, the outside world knew almost nothing regarding Xiao Jianhua’s case.
Xiao Jianhua mysteriously disappeared from Hong Kong
image source,AFP
Xiao Jianhua was taken from the Four Seasons Hotel in Central Hong Kong in 2017, where he was reported to have stayed for more than two years.
After Xiao Jianhua was taken from the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong, his family filed a missing persons report with Hong Kong authorities, but withdrew the report a day later, saying they had “reconnected” with Xiao Jianhua.
Hong Kong police said surveillance footage from the scene showed Xiao Jianhua left the hotel under duress, but refused to release the footage.
Xiao Jianhua later issued a statement and put a statement on the front page of a Hong Kong newspaper that he was receiving treatment abroad. He also praised China’s “rule of law” and said he was not kidnapped and brought to mainland China.
His company also issued statements on his behalf saying he was fine, though those statements were later deleted.
The mysterious whereregardings of billionaires in Hong Kong have caused shocks. This lost contact case raises tough questions regarding the Chinese government’s “cross-border law enforcement” in Hong Kong, and deepens Hong Kong people’s fears that they may be forcibly brought to the mainland for trial by Chinese police and national security.
In 2019, a large-scale “anti-extradition” protest march broke out in Hong Kong. The protests that started with the Hong Kong SAR government’s revision of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance turned into clashes between the police and the people, which lasted for more than half a year.
Carrie Lam, the then chief executive of Hong Kong, later announced the suspension of the amendments, but the incident aroused the dissatisfaction of Hong Kong citizens with deep-seated problems in society and turned into the most serious political turmoil following the handover of Hong Kong’s autonomy.
After Xiao Jianhua was taken away, there was no official news of his whereregardings for several years. In 2020, “Tomorrow Department” confirmed that Xiao Jianhua assisted the government in restructuring the group in mainland China.
