Home>News Center>China | ||
Shanghai property mogul stands trial
A Shanghai court has begun hearing corruption charges against Zhou Zhengyi, a property tycoon who was arrested last year on charges of fraud and stock manipulation, a newspaper reported Thursday.
Zhou’s wife and business partner, Mo Yuk-ping, is under investigation by Hong Kong’s anti-graft agency, the Independent Commission Against Corruption. The case against Zhou, once of China’s wealthiest businessmen, also tarnished a branch of the Bank of China. Its Hong Kong unit, BOC Hong Kong, vowed to improve its lending practices after questions were raised about a HK$1.77 billion (US$226.9 million) loan to a company owned by Zhou. The BOC recalled a former chief executive of the Hong Kong branch, Liu Jinbao, to Beijing and then dismissed him. Zhou, a Shanghai native, made his millions running restaurants and retail outlets before moving into property development. In 2002, Forbes magazine ranked him China’s 11th-richest man, with a fortune estimated at US$320 million. The tycoon is also being sued by 2,000 residents of a Shanghai neighborhood who say he failed to compensate them adequately for demolishing their homes as part of a redevelopment project. |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||