Gome founder jailed for 14 years
黄光裕因内幕交易等三罪获刑14年

Huang Guangyu, once China’s richest man, was on Tuesday sentenced to 14 years in prison for insider trading, bribery and illegal business dealings, the official Xinhua news agency reported.A Beijing court also ordered the founder and former chairman of Hong Kong-listed Gome Electrical Appliances Holding to pay a fine of Rmb600m ($88m) and confiscated Rmb200m worth of his property.Mr Huang was arrested in November 2008, shortly after he was named China’s richest individual by the Hurun Report’s China rich list with an estimated net worth of $6.3bn.He was detained along with his wife Du Juan and Xu Zhongmin, former chairman of a property developer controlled by Mr Huang. The two were also tried on related charges in April but Xinhua did not say whether they had been found guilty.Mr Huang, a self-made billionaire from an impoverished family in southern China, built Gome into one of China’s largest electronics retailers through a series of high profile hostile takeovers.He stepped down as chairman in January 2009 but retained control of a 34 per cent stake in the company. Last year, Bain Capital invested $418m in convertible bonds that would give it a 10.8 per cent stake in Gome upon conversion.Mr Huang’s detention has not prevented him from trading his shares or exercising his voting rights in the company so far. Last week, Mr Huang, through two holding companies, used his votes to unseat three Gome directors representing Bain.Gome later reappointed the three directors, saying that their initial ousting did “not represent the will of the majority of ordinary shareholders” and added that their removal would force the company to pay Bain $352m.Last July, Mr Huang sold 235m Gome shares at HK$1.70 each while in detention. A week later, he bought 816m new shares at HK$0.67 each.Hong Kong’s market regulator in August alleged Mr Huang organised a separate and fraudulent share buyback scheme in 2008. Hong Kong’s High court ordered an interim injunction to freeze HK$1.66bn of assets held by Mr Huang. The injunction remains enforced and the investigation is ongoing.Mr Huang was being detained at the time the allegations by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission were made last year.