New Anti-graft Body To Probe China Huarong Head

The chairman of a state-controlled asset management company on the mainland is under investigation for suspected graft, the latest high-profile figure ensnared in the government's anti-corruption dragnet.

The anti-corruption agency said that Lai Xiaomin, chairman of state-controlled China Huarong Asset Management Co was being investigated for "serious violations of [Communist] party discipline and law", a euphemism for graft.

China Huarong is the country's largest distressed-asset management company and Lai, 56, is one of the most high-profile figures to be probed by the National Supervision Commission, a new super anti-graft agency set up in March.

The commission works alongside the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), which has punished more than one million officials since 2012.

China Huarong shares were suspended from Hong Kong trading on Wednesday morning.

Lai joined the company in 2009 and was appointed chairman and party chief in 2012. Prior to that, he worked in the central bank and the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

Huarong is one of four companies set up by the government in 1999 to help clean up bad debt piles choking the mainland's banking system.

The company has since expanded into investment, loan and property businesses. By the end of 2017, its total assets reached US$300 billion, according to the company's annual report. (AFP)