China Seizes $14.5 Billion In Assets From Ex-Security Chief And Associates
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In what has been described as the largest corruption scandal in the country in more than six decades, Chinese authorities have seized at least 90 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) in assets from family members and associates of former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang – once also a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s top decision-making body.
In what has been described as the largest corruption scandal in the country in more than six decades, Chinese authorities have seized at least 90 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) in assets from family members and associates of former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang – once also a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, China’s top decision-making body.
According to Reuters, more than 300 of Zhou’s relatives, political allies, proteges and staff have been taken into custody or questioned in the past four months, over allegations of favouritism and illegal profiteering – particularly when Zhou was at the helm of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) between 1996 and 1998.
The Daily Beast reported last year that Zhou’s family earned billions of dollars by investing in the oil business, when Zhou headed CNPC. Zhou’s eldest son also allegedly pocketed more than $1.6 billion from public projects in the city of Chongqing alone.
Among the assets seized include frozen bank accounts with deposits totalling 37 billion yuan, and domestic and overseas bonds and stocks with a combined value of 51 billion yuan.
Investigators had also confiscated about 300 apartments and villas worth around 1.7 billion yuan, antiques and contemporary paintings with a market value of 1 billion yuan and more than 60 vehicles, Reuters sources say.
Zhou, 71, has been under virtual house arrest since authorities began formally investigating him late last year. If convicted, he will be the most senior Chinese politician to have ever been dismissed for corruption since the Communist Party swept to power in 1949.
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About 10 more officials who have held a rank equivalent to at least vice minister are also currently under investigation, according to Reuters sources, who have requested anonymity to avoid repercussions for speaking to the foreign media about elite politics.
Among them were Jiang Jiemin, former chairman of both state energy giant PetroChina and its parent China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), former Vice Minister of Public Security Li Dongsheng and Ji Wenlin, ex-vice governor of the southernmost island province of Hainan.
