Former China Huarong International executive sentenced to death for bribery

A FORMER general manager of China Huarong International Holdings, Bai Tianhui, has been sentenced to death by a court in the northern city of Tianjin for taking bribes, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Tuesday (May 28).

Bai was convicted of receiving bribes totalling 1.1 billion yuan (S$204.6 million) between 2014 to 2018, according to the Secondary Intermediate People’s Court of Tianjin, the report said.

He abused his power to provide assistance to relevant entities in project acquisitions and corporate financing, it said.

The amount of bribes taken by Bai was “particularly huge” and “the social impact was particularly pernicious, causing particularly serious losses to the interests of the state and the people”, it said.

China Huarong International Holdings is a key offshore financing unit of troubled asset manager China Huarong Asset Management, which was renamed China Citic Financial Asset Management in January after it was taken over by state-owned conglomerate Citic Group.

Lai Xiaomin, a former chairman of China Huarong, was sentenced to death in 2021 after he was found guilty of taking bribes totalling 1.788 billion yuan from 2008 to 2018. REUTERS