What’s new: The death last month of Zeng Xiangbin, general manager of Kweichow Moutai Group’s sales company, is under investigation, according to China’s leading liquor maker.
Zeng, 49, committed suicide by jumping off a building because of work pressure, a former Moutai employee attending Zeng’s funeral told Caixin. The executive was involved in an investigation before his death, but it’s not clear what the probe was for, a person close to the Guizhou Liquor Association said.
Moutai Group didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The background: Moutai’s namesake product, known as China’s “national liquor,” is often served at Chinese state banquets and presented as a diplomatic gift.
The Moutai sales company is a powerful unit, controlling who can sell Moutai’s liquor and how much can be sold through the company’s own sales network and dealers. As the liquor is often in short supply, the market price can be much higher than the wholesale price dealers get from the company. For years, multiple Moutai executives have been caught accepting bribes for helping others obtain lucrative distribution rights.
Yuan Renguo, former chairman of Moutai, was sentenced to life in prison in September 2021 for accepting $17.5 millions of bribes for handing out distribution rights.
It has been an open secret for years that local and central government officials obtained liquor or distribution rights from Moutai executives. Wang Xiaoguang, former Guizhou vice governor, and his family made more than 40 million yuan of profits in seven years on the Moutai distribution licenses obtained through Yuan. Wang was sentenced in 2019 to 20 years in prison and fined 173.5 million yuan.
In 2019, Moutai was forced to replace the majority of its senior executives and develop a new sales model after Yuan’s investigation.
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com)
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