Anbang’s Wu Xiaohui

Sun Zhengcai, former Chongqing Party Secretary

Wu Xiaohui, former Chairman of Anbang Insurance Group, was sentenced to 18 years in jail by a court in Shanghai for fundraising fraud and embezzling corporate funds. Wu was also deprived of his political rights for four years, and had CNY10.5 billion of his assets confiscated, according to the Shanghai Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court. The court said Wu embezzled CNY10 billion from Anbang’s insurance fund, and defrauded Anbang of CNY65.2 billion by illegally selling insurance products using fake documents. The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) took over Anbang in February to maintain normal operations and to protect the interests of consumers. 


nder Wu, Anbang led high-profile mergers and acquisitions overseas, including the 2014 purchase of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York for USD1.95 billion and Strategic Hotels & Resorts for USD6.5 billion in 2016.

Wu’s trial, however, left many questions unanswered, such as how he could obtain difficult-to-get insurance licenses and who the source of his seed capital was. It also remained unclear why his crimes remained undiscovered or were condoned in the heavily regulated insurance industry. The fundraising fraud started in 2011 when Anbang raised capital through selling “wealth management” insurance policies, exceeding the regulators’ approved quota by CNY723.87 billion in the next six years, before the insurance regulator put a stop to it. The former Chairman of the CIRC Xiang Junbo is now awaiting trial on corruption charges.

Sino-Ocean Land, a company controlled by China Life Insurance, is buying Anbang Insurance’s equity stake in a real estate venture in Beijing, becoming the first firm to swoop on major assets owned by the insurer since the Chinese government took it over. Sino-Ocean will take over half of Anbang’s equity interest in Beijing Bangbang Commercial Property Company, a wholly-owned Anbang subsidiary with a registered capital of CNY200 million.

In a separate trial, Sun Zhengcai, former Party Secretary of Chongqing municipality and Member of the Communist Party’s Politburo, was sentenced to life in prison for taking bribes of over CNY170 million. He was also deprived of his political rights for life and all of his personal property was confiscated. A court in Tianjin found that between 2002 and 2017, Sun took advantage of various posts to provide help for certain entities and individuals in project bidding, project approvals, enterprise operations and personnel promotions. His posts during that period included Party Secretary of Shunyi district in Beijing, Secretary General of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, Minister of Agriculture, and Party Secretary of Jilin province and of Chongqing municipality. During the court proceedings, Sun pleaded guilty and expressed “sincere repentance”. He said he accepted the sentence and would not appeal.