What’s new: Zhang Ke, a former general manager and Communist Party committee chief of state-owned Taiping Life Insurance Co. Ltd., has been expelled from the party for corruption, China’s top graft buster announced Sunday.
Zhang had abused his power to help others, such as in securing business contracts, in exchange for “huge sums” of bribes, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said.
The CCDI accused Zhang of treating his subordinates and companies as “ATMs,” without detailing the numbers involved.
The background: In 2001, Zhang joined China Taiping Insurance Group Ltd., which is wholly owned by the Ministry of Finance, public information shows. He held various positions at the group and its subsidiaries, including Taiping Life, before leaving in 2020 for Hong Kong-listed Yunfeng Financial Group Ltd.
The insurance industry veteran was taken away by authorities from a Shanghai hotel in July last year, when he was due to attend a conference, sources with knowledge of the issue previously told Caixin. A month later, the CCDI announced a probe into Zhang.
Zhang’s misconduct was likely connected with Wang Bin, a former chairman of China Life Insurance (Group) Co. who previously helmed China Taiping, industry insiders previously told Caixin. Wang, who was allegedly involved in a vast web of shady business dealings with a network of associates, was sentenced to death last year with a two-year reprieve for bribery and concealing overseas deposits.
Other sources with knowledge of Zhang’s investigation connected the case to the Sichuan branch of Taiping Life, which he helped establish. An executive of that branch, who worked under Zhang there in the early 2000s, was taken away by authorities shortly after he was probed, they said.
Read more Cover Story: State Insurance Boss’s Capital Games in Hong Kong
Contact reporter Zhang Yukun (yukunzhang@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
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