Thread: Beijing arrests US citizen in crackdown as another massive Chinese company goes bankr

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Chinese authorities have arrested a U.S. citizen at the head of HNA Group, the latest Chinese conglomerate to face bankruptcy.


Adam Tan — currently held by police in China’s southern province of Hainan on “alleged crimes” — is a U.S. citizen according to sources quoted in a BloombergQuint report and is being held alongside HNA Chairman Chen Feng (陳峰).


Spanning aviation, hotels, and commercial properties, HNA Group was one of the largest private entities in China before being split into four separate companies on Saturday (Sept. 20) after filing for bankruptcy.


The news coincides with the evolving crisis of Evergrande, China’s largest property developer, which is tottering on the edge of bankruptcy too.


Tan’s detainment follows the release of Huawei Technologies Co. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟) from three years of house arrest in Vancouver and the release of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, two Canadians who Beijing had held for roughly the same period.


A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Beijing declined to comment on the arrests, per reports.


Beijing arrests US citizen in crackdown as another massive Chinese company goes bankrupt | Taiwan News | 2021-09-25 23:20:00

What's going on here, some creative, Enron-style accounting?

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Enron-style accounting?

U.S. citizen, allegedly. Accused of a crime, allegedly.

Originally Posted by misskit

Chinese authorities have arrested a U.S. citizen

Big news in a Chinese province, allegedly.

Originally Posted by OhOh

U.S. citizen, allegedly. Accused of a crime, allegedly.


Big news in a Chinese province, allegedly.

Yeah we get that they have a scapegoat with a US passport, but that's not what I asked.

However it seems, like Enron, piss poor regulation is to blame.

The bankrupt Chinese conglomerate, which is under state control, said chair Chen Feng and chief executive Adam Tan were taken into custody on Friday over suspected crimes, without providing details of the alleged offences.The arrests return to the spotlight one of China’s most tumultuous corporate sagas. The move by Chinese officials comes three years after co-founder Wang Jian fell to his death in Bonnieux, southern France, in what French police said was an accident.The enigmatic trio amassed a debt pile of nearly $90bn in an acquisition spree that expanded the group’s assets by about $40bn in just two years in the mid-2010s.What started as an airline became a travel industry-focused conglomerate that owned stakes in the Hilton hotel chain, Dutch transport group TIP Trailer Services and Irish aircraft leaser Avolon. It boasted the biggest single stake in Deutsche Bank, marquee properties such as New York’s 245 Park Avenue and the US electronics group Ingram Micro.*But the acquisitions were highly leveraged — borrowing against its base of Chinese assets — raising concerns about a domino effect back home, if the group suddenly could not repay, or refinance, its debts.Chinese creditors in late January launched bankruptcy proceedings and days later, HNA subsidiaries said billions of dollars in funds had been misused.Before their arrests on Friday, the formerly high-flying executives had mostly vanished from public view over the past few years. Chen was barred from taking flights and high-speed rail. Tan’s name last appeared on a company statement in September 2018.State bankers and regulators have set up camp at the company’s offices in Hainan, an island off China’s south-east coastline for several years, trying to clean up the mess.

Subscribe to read | Financial Times