Beijing: Huang Guangyu, the founder of Hong Kong-listed Gome Electrical Appliances Holdings and once China's richest person, went on trial in Beijing yesterday for insider trading and bribery after 15 months in custody.
A female court clerk surnamed He said the trial had begun at the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court. Many of the reporters and camera crews who gathered in the rain outside the court weren't given access.
The trial of Huang, a school dropout who topped the Hurun Report's China Rich List in 2008 with an estimated net worth of $6.3 billion (Dh23 billion), comes as China's leadership cracks down on corruption. According to the Hurun Report, 19 of 1,330 executives on the rich list in the past decade are in jail or awaiting sentence on bribery charges.
Strong message
"They're sending a message to law enforcement officials to take heed of this big lesson," said Willy Lam, a professor of history at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "And of course the message to the other large private companies is that they should follow regulations."
Huang was formally charged on February 12 after police investigations since November 2008 and detention since January 23, 2009. The court held a special pre-trial evidence hearing last week where prosecutors, the defendants and their lawyers were allowed to examine the evidence to be presented at trial.
Huang's wife Lisa Du Juan and Xu Zhongmin, the former chairman of Beijing Centergate Technologies, a Huang-controlled property developer are also on trial.
Gome Appliances, a mainland subsidiary of the listed company, was also indicted for corporate bribery "involving part of the aggregate amount of" 4.56 million yuan (Dh2.4 million), according to the March 1 announcement.
Gome lost 1.1 per cent to HK$2.69 as of 3.24pm in Hong Kong. The stock has dropped 4.6 per cent this year compared with a 2.4 per cent decline for the benchmark Hang Seng Index.
Communist Party officials including Shenzhen mayor Xu Zongheng and deputy police minister Zheng Shaodong have been fired or investigated in connection with Huang's case, part of the biggest sweep against corruption since a 2006 to 2008 campaign that began in Shanghai.
