Five years after he was abducted from his service apartment at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong, Xiao Jianhua — once one of China’s wealthiest businessmen — has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for financial crimes. But what has happened to his fortune, once estimated at more than $100 billion?
The Chinese financier, who was connected with the highest echelons of the Communist Party, amassed his wealth through the Tomorrow Group, a financial services conglomerate that he helped found in the 1990s. Over the years, a web of affiliates and shell companies allowed the group to build stakes in banks, brokerages, insurance and trust firms, listed companies and other investment vehicles.
But after his detention in 2017, Chinese banking and securities regulators began dismantling Xiao’s sprawling financial empire. More than a dozen companies linked to Xiao and the Tomorrow Group have been seized by the government, sold or filed for bankruptcy.
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At first glance, the recent raid on Capvision, a Shanghai consultancy, looks similar to the raids on foreign firms Mintz Group and Bain & Company. But there are reasons to separate Beijing's crackdown on Capvision. For starters, Capvision is Chinese and its shareholders and investors include a network of remarkably high profile and state-connected individuals and companies.
