What’s new: Fan Yifei, a former deputy governor of China’s central bank, was expelled from the Communist Party and removed from official posts on allegations including taking bribes and abusing power.
Fan, 59, became the deputy head of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) in early 2015, overseeing fintech and payment sectors. He was placed under graft investigation in November 2022.
Fan exchanged power for money “over a long period of time” and accepted a “huge amount” of bribes to benefit others with loan and financing favors, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said Friday in a statement.
The Communist Party’s top graft buster also accused Fan of engaging in superstitious activities, allowing relatives to obtain salaries without doing any work, trading power for sex and intervening in law enforcement.
Background: Fan was detained by anti-graft officials in his office in early November along with his secretary, Caixin reported earlier. He was the first senior Chinese financial official investigated after the Communist Party’s 20th National Congress.
Before joining the PBOC in 2015, Fan served as a vice president of China Investment Corp, a sovereign fund, for about five years. Before that, he worked in several China Construction Bank Corp. posts including vice president, according to his profile.
Fan earned a Ph.D. in economics from Renmin University and a master’s from Columbia University in the U.S.
Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bob.simison@caixin.com)
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