As China cracks down on corruption in the financial industry, the executive of one of the country’s biggest private conglomerates is missing, according to the financial news magazine Caixin.
The magazine reports Guo Guanchang may have been arrested or detained by Chinese authorities. Since August, several Chinese executives have been detained or arrested. Others have gone missing.
In November, the chairman of the stock brokerage firm Guotai Junan International disappeared. Yim Fung has not been reached since Nov. 18, according to a company statement.
Many top executives at Citic Securities, China’s largest brokerage firm, have been detained since the summer. The company’s president Cheng Boming and other top officers are being investigated in relation to an insider trading case.
On Sunday, Citic Securities said it “was not able to get in touch with” top executives Chen Jun and Yan Jianlin, and that they may have been “requested to assist in an investigation.
The two oversaw investment banking for the firm.
Several executives are released following questioning.
Li Yifei, China’s head for the Man Group, one of the world’s biggest hedge funds, was allowed to go back to work after meeting with authorities, according to her husband who spoke with The South China Morning Post.
Still, others are arrested. Xu Xiang, who is suspected of insider trading, was apprehended by police following a car chase.
Last week, Chinese media reported that a Chinese billionaire with ties to a disgraced former member of the ruling Communist Party died of a heart attack while detained at a prison in Wuhan. Xu Ming, 44, was a key player in a political corruption scandal.
Fosun International has made no announcement following Guo’s alleged disappearance. In an interview with Bloomberg News, the company’s vice chairman Liang Xinjun said the company was “handling the situation.”
The matter follows last summer’s major dip in the Chinese stock market which dropped stocks in Shanghai by more than 40 percent.
Beijing stepped in by limiting short selling and sales by large shareholders. It also grouped brokerage firms into a “national team” shoring up share prices at the behest of the state. Although the efforts helped for a limited time, stocks eventually took another plunge.
Afterward, the government launched its anti-corruption investigations.
In August, a reporter for the financial magazine Caijing admitted on national television that he spread “market rumors” in one of his articles. The author worked for Caijing, a publication run by the brother of the chairman of Citic Securities.
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