Ex-Chairman of China’s Anbang ‘Doesn’t Deserve Leniency,’ Say Prosecutors

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Chinese prosecutors said Wu Xiaohui, the former chairman of Anbang Insurance Group Co., doesn’t deserve leniency as the one-day hearing of a fundraising fraud and embezzlement case against him wrapped up.

Wu didn’t make confessions that could justify reduced penalties, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court said on Weibo Wednesday evening [March 28], citing prosecutors who said his actions had threatened national financial security. Before falling afoul of the authorities, Wu led a multiyear deal spree that spanned the globe, including the purchase of New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel.

While Wu, whose firm was seized by the government [in February], had disputed the charges and some of the alleged facts, he was later quoted by the court as saying he “realized the crimes and regrets the crimes,” asking for leniency.

*Anbang Insurance Group Co. is displayed atop Anbang Financial Center Block B in Beijing, China. Photographer: Giulia Marchi/Bloomberg*

The case against Wu included defrauding Anbang Property & Casualty Insurance of an alleged 65.2 billion yuan ($10.4 billion), the amount claimed to be still missing from 160 billion yuan in unauthorized sales proceeds that he transferred into companies he secretly controlled.

Zhang Yaojun, a senior partner at Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, called it the biggest fundraising fraud case in China, with a potential punishment of life imprisonment. The court didn’t say when its ruling will come.

The speedy hearing contrasts with white-collar fraud cases that can drag on for months or years in other countries. After politician Bo Xilai was arrested in a corruption case that rocked the country in 2012, his trial lasted five days. His sentence came a month later.

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