A Chinese court has charged the founder of home appliance giant GOME (國美) — once the country’s richest man — with bribery, insider trading and illegal business dealings, state media reported.
The indictment of Huang Guangyu (黃光裕) brings China one step closer to what is expected to be the highest-profile trial yet in the country of a private entrepreneur, and one that will be watched closely in the business community.
Huang, who had been held by authorities for 14 months without charge, will be tried in a Beijing court, without specifying a start date, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday, citing local media.
He is suspected of manipulating trading in two China-listed companies, China’s Securities Regulatory Commission has previously said.
A court official declined to comment on the case when contacted by reporters yesterday.
Huang, 40, once known as the “Price Butcher” for the low prices at his chain of consumer electronics stores, was named China’s richest man with an estimated net worth of US$6.3 billion by the Hurun Report in October 2008.
He was detained and placed under investigation a month later, and resigned as GOME director and chairman in January last year.
Two top police officials, including a former deputy minister of public security, were detained on suspicion of bribery in connection with the case.
Before his arrest, Huang was revered in the media as a model entrepreneur who rose from nothing by successfully capitalizing on China’s decades of economic reforms.
A high school drop-out, he started building his fortune when he was 16, with a roadside stall in Beijing selling radios and gadgets that he bought from factories near his hometown in Guangdong Province.
GOME Group is now China’s largest electronics and appliance chain with more than 1,200 stores in more than 200 cities.
Huang also ventured into private equity as head of the Beijing-based Pengrun Investment company.
He previously topped the Hurun Report’s rankings of China’s richest in 2004 and 2005.
Trading in Hong Kong-listed GOME was suspended in November 2008 after Huang was placed under investigation.
But it resumed in June last year after new chairman Chen Xiao (陳曉) announced that private equity firm Bain Capital would invest US$233 million through a bond issue.
A spokeswoman for GOME in Hong Kong said the listed firm “has never taken any position on the ex-chairman.”
“Unless there was anything linked to the company itself, we wouldn’t make any comment,” she told reporters.
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