China opened a corruption investigation into Zhang Hongli, a former vice president at the nation’s largest bank, adding to a growing list of top bankers to be caught up in the crackdown on the $61 trillion financial sector, according to Bloomberg.
Also called Lee Zhang, he worked at Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. from 2010-2018 after earlier holding top roles at Deutsche Bank AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
He is being probed for alleged violations of discipline and laws, the top anti-graft body Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said over the weekend in a one-sentence statement.
The probe marks the latest high-profile investigation in China’s two-year long campaign to root out graft in the finance industry. The campaign has brought down more than 100 officials and executives this year alone.
President Xi Jinping has tightened the reins over the sector in recent years to install a more “centralized and unified leadership” and cracked down on the “hedonistic” lifestyles of bankers. Authorities also made financial stability a top priority as they strive to revive the economy without stoking unintended risks.
Zhang joined ICBC, the world’s biggest bank by assets, in 2010 as an executive vice president from Deutsche Bank. That made him the first foreign banker to be hired to a senior executive role at one of China’s state-owned banks, according to state media.
He resigned from the bank in 2018 due to a family issue and joined private equity firm Hopu Investment Management Co. as a co-chairman, according to local media.
Zhang’s time at ICBC overlapped in part with Li Xiaopeng, former chairman and party secretary of China Everbright Group, who was arrested last month, and Cong Lin, a former executive at China Renaissance Holdings Ltd., who was detained more than a year ago.
During his time at ICBC, Zhang was also caught in a dispute with his former employer Deutsche Bank, which sued him over a transfer of $3.9 million to an offshore company.
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