Beijing executed a former general manager of China Huarong International Holdings, Bai Tianhui, for taking bribes totalling 1.1 billion yuan (RM639mil), state broadcaster CCTV said.
The company is a key offshore financing unit of troubled asset manager China Huarong Asset Management, known since 2024 as China CITIC Financial Asset Management.
One of China’s biggest bad debt managers, Huarong was set up to handle bad loans from state banks.
The amount of bribes taken by Bai was “huge” and “the social impact was particularly pernicious, causing particularly serious losses to the interests of the state and the people”, CCTV said.
CCTV said Bai exploited his senior positions at Huarong International Financial Holdings Ltd (Hong Kong) and China Huarong International Holdings Ltd between 2014 and 2018 to illegally accept money and assets.
Bai, sentenced to death in May 2024 by a court in China’s northern city of Tianjin, lost his appeal to a higher court in February, which was then approved by the country’s top court.
Yesterday’s execution was the latest in China’s anti-graft campaign that has been widened to the sprawling financial industry.
In 2021, China executed Lai Xiaomin, a former chairman of China Huarong, in one of its highest-profile graft cases after he was found guilty of receiving or seeking bribes totalling 1.79 billion yuan. — Reuters
