Two more senior China Resources bosses held in wake of Song Lin graft probe
Inquiry at China Resources group is widening, sources reveal, with senior bosses taken away after graft probe of ex-chairman is announced
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 24 April, 2014, 5:01pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 24 April, 2014, 11:25pm
Keith Zhai, Zhang Hong and Eric Ng
Song Lin, former chairman of China Resources, and Wu Ding are among the latest China Resources officials implicated of corruption. Photo: Edward Wong
Two senior executives at companies in the China Resources group were detained immediately after the state-run conglomerate’s former chairman Song Lin was placed under investigation for corruption, sources familiar with the matter said.
Wu Ding, the 49-year-old chief executive of China Resources Capital Holdings, was taken away hours after the Communist Party’s anti-graft agency announced last Thursday it was investigating Song, two sources said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media.
Wang Hongkun, executive director of China Resources Land, was detained the same day, different sources said.
The detention of Wu and Wang shows that the investigation into China Resources is widening, the sources added.
The government’s anti-corruption investigation body said last Thursday that Song was “suspected of grave violations of discipline and law”, a form of words it often uses to describe graft.
Two days earlier, a journalist at a newspaper controlled by state-run Xinhua had accused Song of having a mistress, Helen Yang Lijuan, who worked at investment bank UBS in Hong Kong, and of using her to launder large amounts of money from allegedly corrupt deals.
A company statement released by China Resources Land on Tuesday said Wang, 46, had resigned because of ill health.
A company spokeswoman said yesterday she was not aware of the “rumours” about his detention.
Wu’s name had been deleted from board members listed on the firm’s official website when it was accessed yesterday morning.
“Wu is a close friend of Song and has connections with some senior officials,” said one of the sources.
A spokeswoman at China Resources Capital in Hong Kong, said: “I am not sure why [Wu’s bio] was taken down and it’s not clear to me when the website made that change.
“You can follow our website to see if there will be any new announcements.”
Meanwhile, Li Fuzuo, the chairman of China Resources Pharmaceutical Group, is also on leave, the company’s spokeswoman said.
“He is still our chairman. He is still in the company, although recently he had something on at home and asked for leave to deal with that,” the spokeswoman said. “Although he is not in the office, if we have work that needs his instructions, we will ask him.”
One of the sources told the South China Morning Post that Li was currently in the United States with his family.
All three senior executives are veteran staff at China Resources, which controls five listed companies in Hong Kong, spanning natural resources to real estate.
Song rose through the conglomerate’s ranks to become chairman of China Resources in 2008.
Before facing the probe, at least two reporters accused Song of personally profiting from the assets China Resources bought in Shanxi province.
Wu, who comes from Shanxi, built a career in the conglomerate after graduating from the Shanxi University of Finance and Economics in 1988.
He worked in the investment unit of China Resources and became the head of its Shanghai office.
He was promoted to chief executive of China Resources’ financial arm in 2011.
Wang joined the company in 1993 and served as the head of the firm’s branch in Hainan province. He became executive director of the group’s land division last year.
Li has worked at China Resources since 1990 and has served in different subsidiaries including its cement, land and gas arms.
China Resources announced on Wednesday that Fu Yuning, the former head of the state-owned ports-to-financial services conglomerate China Merchants Group, would replace Song as chairman.
It also said in an earlier statement that the company would “fully co-operate with the investigation” after Song’s detention.
The government’s anti-corruption campaign has partly focused on state-owned enterprises, which have made huge profits from their monopolies and preferential government policies. Jiang Jiemin, the former chairman of the state-owned oil giant China National Petroleum Corp, was placed under investigation for alleged corruption last year.
