Former Huarong Chairman Lai Xiaomin sentenced to death

Former chairman of China Huarong Asset Management Co Lai Xiaomin has been sentenced to death on charges of bribery, corruption and bigamy. A local court in Tianjin City found Lai Xiaomin guilty of taking bribes worth a total of 1.79 billion yuan (S$365 million) between 2008-18. As per the ruling, all his personal assets will be confiscated.

Lai Xiaomin committed the crimes as a senior banking regulator, the Secondary Intermediate People’s Court of Tianjin observed. “Lai Xiaomin was lawless and extremely greedy,” the court said. “The social harm was huge and the crimes were extremely serious and he should be severely punished according to law,” it said. He was infamous for having a hundred mistresses.

LATEST: China has sentenced former Huarong chairman Lai Xiaomin to death for bribery, corruption and bigamy reports state media.

Lai is charged with taking about $277 million in bribes and infamously had 100 mistresses, local media reported. More: https://t.co/Q1VMVbEuy7 pic.twitter.com/HeCu6Hq824

— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) January 5, 2021

Lai confessed in a state TV documentary that he preferred cash payments and would drive the money to an apartment in Beijing, from where the police recovered more than 200 million yuan later. He pleaded guilty in his final statement and expressed remorse over his conduct.

Lai was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party in 2018 and was detained. It was discovered that he owned a great many properties, luxury watches, cars, gold and art collections. The court observed that he took advantage of his position to capture millions of yuan worth of public funds in collusion with others. He was also charged with bigamous violations of his marriage.

According to Chinese state media, more than a million government officials have been punished in Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive. It is to be noted that Alibaba founder Jack Ma is also under the radar and an antitrust investigation has been initiated against the Alibaba Group Holding after the billionaire made unsavoury comments against financial regulators.