Former Chairman of insurance regulator pleads guilty to taking bribes
June 19, 2018 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
Xiang Junbo, former Chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), pleaded guilty in court to taking bribes, a year after he was sacked. He became the highest-ranking finance official to be snared in President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on graft in the financial industry. Prosecutors at a court in Jiangsu province said Xiang had abused his power not only as head of the insurance watchdog, but also earlier in his career while holding senior positions at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and Agricultural Bank of China (ABC).
The 61-year-old was accused of taking bribes totaling CNY19.4 million in exchange for helping organizations and individuals secure contracts, loans, qualifications and personnel promotions. Prosecutors said Xiang accepted bribes both directly and through his wife Yang Guang, who is being prosecuted separately. The court did not give a date for sentencing. Xiang was removed from his position at the CIRC in April last year during a shake-up of China’s financial sector. He was put under criminal investigation after being accused of issuing operating licenses to favored insurers. The CIRC no longer exists as an autonomous agency after the government, in an attempt to fend off growing financial risks, merged it with the banking regulator in March.
Xiang was appointed head of the CIRC in 2011. In his six years at the helm, the value of China’s insurance industry almost tripled, and several firms grew exponentially, the South China Morning Post reports. One of the most notable examples was Anbang Insurance Group, which was established in 2011 following a corporate restructuring, and grew into a company with CNY2 trillion in assets. Much of its growth stemmed from licenses issued by the regulator to sell “universal insurance policies”, or high-yielding wealth management products that have little to do with traditional insurance. Former Anbang Chairman Wu Xiaohui was last month sentenced to 18 years in prison for fraud and embezzlement, but has lodged an appeal against the charges.
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