China jails Canadian tycoon for 13 years for finance crimes

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese-born Canadian tycoon who disappeared from Hong Kong in 2017 was sentenced Friday to 13 years in prison for a multibillion-dollar string of financial offenses and his company was fined $8.1 billion, a court announced.

Xiao Jianhua was convicted of misusing billions of dollars of deposits from banks and insurers controlled by his Tomorrow Group and offering bribes to officials, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court said on its social media account.

Xiao was fined 6.5 million yuan ($950,000) and his company was fined 55 billion yuan ($8.1 billion), the court said.

Xiao was last seen at a Hong Kong hotel in January 2017 and was believed to have been taken to the mainland by Chinese authorities. News reports later said he was under investigation by anti-graft authorities, but no details were released.

The Canadian government said diplomats were blocked from attending his July 5 trial.

Tomorrow Group has been linked to a series of anti-corruption prosecutions and seizures of financial companies by regulators.

Friday's announcement said Xiao and Tomorrow Group were convicted of improperly taking more than 311.6 billion yuan ($46 billion) from the public and misused entrusted property and money totaling 148.6 billion yuan ($21.8 billion).

Xiao vanished amid a flurry of prosecutions of Chinese businesspeople accused of misconduct.

That fueled speculation the ruling Communist Party might be abducting people outside the mainland. Hong Kong at that time prohibited Chinese police from operating in the former British colony, which has a separate legal system.

Since then, Beijing has tightened control over Hong Kong, prompting complaints it is violating the autonomy promised when the territory returned to China in 1997. The Communist Party imposed...