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Copper tycoon He Jinbi, once one of the richest men in China, has been sentenced to life in prison over fraud and other offences committed by the company he founded, Maike Metals International, Bloomberg reported.
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The report said a court in the western Chinese city of Xi’an found Maike guilty of contract fraud, bribery and other offences last month, and handed its 61-year-old boss, He, a life sentence, citing people familiar with the verdict.
The report added, citing sources, that the ruling found Maike’s conduct had exposed several Chinese banks to more than US$1 billion (HK$7.8 billion) of potential losses.
He has appealed the verdict, the report said. Maike was forced into restructuring in 2023 following a liquidity crisis stemming from Covid-era disruptions.
His defence team argued during proceedings that neither the company nor its founder intended to commit fraud. Maike worked with banks for more than a decade and regularly repaid its loans, striving to do so even when upheaval due to pandemic restrictions reduced cash flows. At least some losses at the lenders stemmed instead from inadequate internal risk controls and procedures, they said, according to Bloomberg.
Known as “China's foremost figure in the copper trade,” He founded Maike in June 1993 and established a Hong Kong-based company to expand the business in 1999.
In 2022, He and his wife appeared on the Hurun Rich List in 1,221st position, with an estimated net worth of 5 billion yuan (HK$5.87 billion), before the company succumbed to a severe liquidity crisis triggered by Covid disruptions later that year.
Maike’s senior executives lost contact with He in October 2023 and believed he had been detained by policy. Maike subsequently filed for bankruptcy the following month.
