Corrupt Chinese official arrested for hoarding 3 tons of cash

The Second Branch of the Tianjin City Procuratorate has issued a decision to arrest Lai Xiaomin in accordance with the law. The case is under further investigation.” Previously, on October 15, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection - the National Supervisory Commission of China announced a “double expulsion” (expulsion from the Party and civil service) disciplinary action against Lai Xiaomin for “going against the central government’s monetary policy, accepting bribes and exchanging power for sex, abusing power indiscriminately, being depraved, and having moral corruption.”

Lai Tieu Dan.

To reach the decision to discipline Lai Xiaomin, the agency decided to conduct an investigation in April 2018 after rumors emerged about “Secretary with 3 100 things Lai Xiaomin” (100 lovers, 100 houses and 100 relationships). Caixin reported that investigators found a huge amount of cash of all kinds hidden in Dan’s house, weighing a total of 3,105 kg, with a total value of up to 270 million yuan (39.1 million USD). If stacked together, the amount of 100 yuan bills would weigh more than 3 cubic meters.

However, that is just the “tip of the iceberg”. On November 9, the “Economic Observatory” published an article stating that the Lai Xiaomin case involves hundreds of people, and with the current force, it is impossible to complete the investigation within the next 3 years. According to the newspaper, two people who have access to the investigation of the case revealed: The amount of Lai Xiaomin’s assets related to the case is over 1.6 billion yuan (5,600 billion VND); that does not include other valuable assets that he actually owns such as real estate.

One of these two told “Economic Observatory”: Since being investigated in April 2018, Lai Xiaomin has revealed hundreds of people who have relationships with him; with Lai Xiaomin as the trigger, the fight against corruption in the banking and monetary sector has just really begun. “Based on the situation of the case and the number of people involved that Lai Xiaomin revealed, with the current force, it is not certain that the investigation will be completed in 3 years.”

Public documents show that Lai Xiaomin was born in 1962, from Jiangxi, and is a delegate to the 12th National People's Congress (2013-2018). After graduating from the Department of Economic Planning, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics in 1983, Dan joined the People's Bank of China, holding the positions of Deputy Director, Head of the Capital Planning Department, Deputy Director of the Loan Management Department, Deputy Director of Supervision Management... In 2003, when the China Banking Supervision Association was established, Dan became the Director of the Beijing Municipal Banking Supervision Bureau, Party Secretary, and Director of the China Banking Supervision Office.

In 2009, Lai Xiaomin left the banking supervision system and became Deputy Secretary and Director. From September 2012, he was assigned to hold the position of Party Secretary and Chairman of China Huarong Asset Management Company under the State Council - an asset management and bad debt investment agency established by the Ministry of Finance and China Life Insurance Corporation. After taking the helm of Huarong, the company's assets have continuously increased. By the end of 2017, total assets had reached 1,870 billion yuan (270 billion USD), net assets were 182.6 billion, and net profit in 2017 was 26.6 billion yuan; in 2016, it ranked 184th in the top 500 strongest companies in China.

When Lai Xiaomin was expelled from the Party, he was accused of accepting bribes and “blind expansion and disorderly business operations,” causing Huarong to seriously deviate from its core business of investing in bad debt. It is known that from 2014 to 2017, Huarong issued USD bonds worth up to 50 billion USD.

Huarong's use of preferential financial policies to borrow from banks at low interest rates and then recklessly buy and lend at high interest rates has put the company in a dangerous situation. After Lai Xiaomin was announced to be under investigation on April 17, 2018, the Finance website reported that Huarong's total debt was now 1,690 billion yuan, and the company's stock price on the stock market immediately dropped 38.7%.

Regarding Lai Xiaomin's nickname "3 things 100", Caixin newspaper explained: Lai Xiaomin has more than 120 houses, more than 100 relationships including influential figures in politics, business, banking and more than 100 lovers, including dozens of girls within Huarong Company and "including female celebrities that everyone knows".

According to Da Chieu on November 9, an investigator said that among the women that Lai Xiaomin "exchanged power for beauty" many were female employees of Hoa Dung Company. "Some of them, in order to get a certain position, put sexy photos of themselves in their profile and sent them to Lai Xiaomin so that he would pay attention and take care of them."

Lai Xiaomin also showed his “gallantry” towards the beauties. Out of more than 120 houses, he gave 100 to his ex-wife and his lovers, turning them into “Eden gardens”, places to go to enjoy themselves. The fact that more than 100 lovers and ex-wives of different backgrounds and positions lived in harmony without fighting with each other was also hard to imagine.