China sentences tycoon Xiao Jianhua to 13 years in jail, fines his company $8.1 billion

Xiao Jianhua, one of China's richest people, was sentenced by a Shanghai court on Friday (August 19) to 13 years in prison. The court also fined his Tomorrow Holdings company $8.1 billion. This comes more than five years after the billionaire was reportedly abducted from a hotel room in Hong Kong and taken to China.

Jianhua, who is a Canadian citizen, has not been seen in public since 2017.

The Shanghai First Intermediate Court said that Jianhua and his company are convicted of crimes involving illegally siphoning away public deposits, betraying the use of the entrusted property and the illegal use of funds and bribery.

The court added that both had admitted (pleaded guilty) to their crimes, that's why the punishment was mitigated. As per the statement, they even cooperated in recovering the illegal gains and in restoring losses.

Initially, there had been no official word about Xiao,but Ottawa in July confirmed that he was facing trial.

The court said that the firm's actions "have seriously disrupted the financial management order, seriously endangered the country's financial security."

Diplomats of the Canadian embassy had said in July that they were denied access to the trial. On Friday, China's foreign ministry insisted that because Beijing does not recognise dual citizenship, Xiao "does not enjoy the right to consular protection from other countries".

"Xiao has Chinese citizenship. China holds trials for criminal activity by its citizens in accordance with the law," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a briefing.

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