The case of Lai Xiaomin, ex-chair of the China Huarong Asset Management Co., Ltd. (CHAM), one of the largest financial asset management companies in the country, opened a session in a court in Tianjin on August 11. Lai was charged with bribery, corruption and bigamy. Lai pleaded guilty and repented in court.
It was alleged that, between 2008 and 2018, when Lai Xiaomin held the positions of the director of the General Office of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary and chair of CHAM, he illegally accepted property with a total value of more than 1.788 billion yuan (US$ 0.26 billion).
This figure may have broken the record for the amount of corruption among all indicted Chinese officials. Pan Lu, a former teacher from Suzhou, gave a vivid description of the 1.788 billion yuan, “The money weighs 20 tons in 100-yuan bills. A one-hundred-square-meter house is not big enough to store that much cash. A dedicated villa is needed.”
China’s Caixin Media reported that there are three “one hundreds” in Lai’s case, including more than one hundred houses, one hundred contacts (with high-up officials), and one hundred lovers. In addition, the investigators found 270 million yuan (US$ 38.9 million) in cash in Lai’s residence, setting a record for the amount of cash seized from corrupt personnel.
Pan believes that the Lai Xiaomin corruption case is not unusual, and pales in comparison with the amount of corruption in China’s red families, the families of top CCP officials. “We know that the amount of corruption in the families of CCP Standing Committee members has reached astronomical figures. Lai was simply sacrificed by the regime to show that the CCP has the ability to fight corruption. One should not believe that the CCP is bold and decisive in fighting corruption just because of Lai’s case.”
Source: Radio Free Asia, August 11, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jingmao/hj-08112020141839.html