China executes former Huarong senior executive for $202m graft
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The company is a key offshore financing unit of troubled asset manager China Huarong Asset Management, also known as China CITIC Financial Asset Management.
PHOTO: UNSPLASH
BEIJING – China executed Bai Tianhui, a former general manager of China Huarong International, on Tuesday for taking bribes totalling 1.1 billion yuan (S$202 million), state broadcaster CCTV has reported.
The company is a key offshore financing unit of troubled asset manager China Huarong Asset Management, known since 2024 as China CITIC Financial Asset Management.
One of China’s biggest bad debt managers, Huarong was set up to handle bad loans from state banks.
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”, CCTV said.
CCTV said Bai exploited his senior positions at Huarong International Financial Holdings (Hong Kong) and China Huarong International Holdings between 2014 and 2018 to illegally accept money and assets.
Bai, sentenced to death in May 2024 by a court in China’s northern city of Tianjin, lost his appeal to a higher court in February, which was then approved by the country’s top court.
The execution was the latest in China’s anti-graft campaign that has been widened to the sprawling financial industry.
In 2021, China executed Lai Xiaomin
Huarong was renamed after its takeover by CITIC Group in a government-orchestrated bailout
