The Chinese-Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua was sentenced to 13 years in prison in China, and his company was fined more than 8 billion dollars. Jianhua and his company Tomorrow Holdings were charged with embezzlement and bribery, a Shanghai court said.
Xiao – one of China’s richest men – was last seen being picked up from a luxury hotel in Hong Kong in 2017. He has not been heard from in public since then, until the Canadian embassy said in July that he was going to jail.
The trial began on July 4. Xiao and his company were found guilty of “illegal embezzlement of public deposits, breach of trust using trust assets, and illegal use of funds,” according to a statement from the Shanghai court, which also said Tomorrow Holdings was guilty of “bribery.” The court also stated that Shiu and his company “severely violated the financial management regulations” and “damaged the financial security of the state”.
The court said that Shiu and his company pleaded guilty and cooperated with the authorities, so their sentence was reduced. In July, the Canadian embassy in China said its diplomats had not been given access to the trial. When asked yesterday about the access given to Xiao to Canadian legal advice, as a citizen of the country, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that it does not recognize dual citizenship, so Xiao was not entitled to these rights.
According to reports, Xiu had close ties to the ruling elites of the Communist Party. In 2017, Xiao was taken from the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong, where he was staying at the time. His family filed a missing person’s report with Hong Kong authorities after his disappearance, but withdrew it a day later because they “were able to contact him.” Hong Kong police said surveillance footage from the scene of the abduction showed Xiao did not leave the hotel under duress, but declined to release the footage. Xiao later issued a statement published on the front page of a popular newspaper, in which he allegedly said he was receiving medical treatment outside the country. He also praised China’s “rule of law” and said he had not been kidnapped. His company also issued a statement on his behalf saying he was fine, but this Removed after a few days.