What’s new: Wang Zongcheng, former director of the accounting department at the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), was expelled from the Communists Party and removed from public positions on corruption charges, the country’s anti-graft watchdog said Friday.
The former senior official at the Chinese securities regulator was found to have accepted bribes including banquets, expensive gifts and shopping cards from his supervision targets, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said in a statement. In exchange, he provided regulatory information to companies and helped them to cover their risks. He also arranged for his relatives and friends to hold shares of companies for which he provided favors on behalf of himself and set up fraudulent wealth management accounts to cover up the bribes.
Wang, 57, was put under investigation in June 2022.
The background: The Anhui province native spent nearly 30 years at the CSRC starting in 1993. He was a deputy director of the CSRC’s bureau in Northwest China’s Shaanxi province between September 2003 and August 2005. He was the head of its bureau in the wealthy coastal province of Zhejiang from July 2016 to December 2018. People who know Wang said he formed close ties with a number of businesspeople during his tenure in the two provinces.
Wang worked with Mao Bihua, who held senior positions as deputy director and director at the CSRC from late 2007 to 2015. Mao fell under investigation in December 2020 and was ousted from public office and the Communist Party for corruption in May 2021.
While working at the public offering supervision department of the CSRC, Wang worked with Zeng Changhong, who was placed under a graft probe in October 2021 and was expelled from the Communist Party in April 2022.
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bob.simison@caixin.com)
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