China tycoon jailed for 13 yrs for graft

A Chinese-Canadian tycoon who disappeared from a Hong Kong hotel five years ago has been sentenced to 13 years in prison and his company fined $8 billion for embezzlement and bribery, a Shanghai court said yesterday.

Xiao Jianhua, one of China's richest people when he was allegedly abducted in 2017, reportedly had close connections to the upper echelons of the ruling Communist Party.

There had been no official word about Xiao -- who is a Canadian citizen -- until Ottawa confirmed in July that he was facing trial.

Xiao and his firm, Tomorrow Group, were found guilty of "illegally absorbing public deposits, breaching trust in the use of entrusted property... (and) illegal use of funds," the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court said in a statement.

It added that Tomorrow Group had committed the "crime of bribery". It also fined Tomorrow Group 55.03 billion yuan ($8 billion) and Xiao 6.5 million yuan ($950,000).

Xiao and his company pleaded guilty and cooperated with the authorities in recovering what they had illegally acquired, the statement said.