Chinese police said the country’s richest man and chairman of China’s top electronics retailer, GOME, was under investigation after local media reported he had been detained as part of a probe into share price manipulation.
“Relevant departments” were investigating Huang Guangyu (黃光裕), the chairman of GOME Electrical Appliances Holdings Ltd, an anonymous spokeswoman for the Xicheng district branch of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau told reporters yesterday.
“At this time it’s not convenient for me to tell you the details, but he is under investigation,” she said.
The Chinese financial magazine Caijing said on the weekend that 39-year-old Huang was detained last Wednesday in relation to an investigation into stock movements of SD Jintai, a drugs and medical equipment firm controlled by Huang’s brother, Huang Junqin (黃俊欽).
SD Jintai’s stock surged more than eight-fold last year.
Chinese media reports yesterday said Huang Guangyu was also being investigated for other suspected offenses, including illegal loans, misuse of company funds and bribery.
Huang, worth US$6.3 billion, moved to Beijing in his late teens with his brother and set up a home appliances distribution firm with 30,000 yuan (US$4,392).
Two years ago, Chinese authorities probed Huang in connection with a loan deal involving his investment company, Eagle Property Group. Huang was later cleared of any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, the former boss of one of the country’s biggest textile factories was arrested while attempting to flee the country, a local official said yesterday, as the bankrupt company’s Singapore-listed unit was put under court protection, Tao Shoulong (陶壽龍), former head of Zhejiang Jianglong Textile Printing & Dyeing Co, and his wife were arrested in Guangdong Province, Qi Xiaoning, a spokesman for the government in the eastern Chinese city of Shaoxing, confirmed.
Shaoxing-based Zhejiang Jianglong, which derived about three-quarters of its revenues from overseas sales, shut down suddenly last month, saying it was unable to honor 2 billion yuan in debts. About the same time, Tao and his wife, Yan Qi (嚴琪), disappeared after allegedly burning the company’s accounting records, reports by the official Xinhua News Agency and other state-run media said.
“Frankly, I feel a bit sympathetic toward Tao. He borrowed such a huge amount of money just to try to get the company through hard times, but in fact he couldn’t repay it,” Yan said.
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
ON THE LAM: The Brazilian Supreme Court said that the former president tried to burn his ankle monitor off as part of an attempt to orchestrate his escape from Brazil Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — under house arrest while he appeals a conviction for a foiled coup attempt — was taken into custody on Saturday after the Brazilian Supreme Court deemed him a high flight risk. The court said the far-right firebrand — who was sentenced to 27 years in prison over a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 elections — had attempted to disable his ankle monitor to flee. Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said Bolsonaro’s detention was a preventive measure as final appeals play out. In a video made
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
SHOW OF FORCE: The US has held nine multilateral drills near Guam in the past four months, which Australia said was important to deter coercion in the region Five Chinese research vessels, including ships used for space and missile tracking and underwater mapping, were active in the northwest Pacific last month, as the US stepped up military exercises, data compiled by a Guam-based group shows. Rapid militarization in the northern Pacific gets insufficient attention, the Pacific Center for Island Security said, adding that it makes island populations a potential target in any great-power conflict. “If you look at the number of US and bilateral and multilateral exercises, there is a lot of activity,” Leland Bettis, the director of the group that seeks to flag regional security risks, said in an
RSS