What’s new: Chinese prosecutors have indicted more than 185,000 people for financial crimes over the past five years, a 28.2% increase compared with the previous half-decade, according to the country’s top prosecutor’s office — the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP).
From 2018 to 2022, prosecutorial agencies cracked down on a number of financial crimes, including high-profile ones involving conglomerates Tomorrow Holding Co. Ltd. and Anbang Insurance Group Co. Ltd., SPP Deputy Procurator-General Sun Qian said at a Wednesday media conference.
The background: The crackdowns on Tomorrow Holding and Anbang were part of China’s years-long efforts to mitigate risks in the financial system.
Chinese regulators seized nine financial institutions affiliated with Tomorrow Holding in 2020, as part of efforts to dismantle its risky assets. Xiao Jianhua, the fallen tycoon who once controlled the group, was sent to prison for 13 years in 2022 after being convicted of several charges including bribery and illegal deposit-taking.
Anbang’s founder Wu Xiaohui was sentenced to 18 years behind bars in 2018 for embezzlement and fundraising fraud, while his financial empire was taken over by the government that year. Regulators later transformed part of the insurance giant into a new company, Dajia Insurance Group Co. Ltd.
Related: China Pushes Ahead With Restructuring of Tomorrow Holding-Linked Insurers
Contact reporter Zhang Ziyu (ziyuzhang@caixin.com) and editor Bertrand Teo (bertrandteo@caixin.com)
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