Huang Guangyu, the former richest man in mainland China and founder of Gome, was officially released from prison on Feb. 17, Beijing Time. It was previously reported that Huang Guangyu’s imprisonment was related to Zhou Yongkang, the former political and legal king of the Chinese Communist Party, who had personally instructed that Huang Guangyu’s case be made an iron case.
On February 17, Gome Holdings Group released a message through its official WeChat public number that Huang Guangyu’s parole test period had expired on February 16, 2021, and that he had been “officially released”. As a result, Gome’s retail shares jumped 34% on Feb. 16.
Huang Guangyu, born in 1969, is a native of Shantou, Guangdong, and was the founder of Gome in January 1987 when the company was officially listed as a Gome Electrical Appliance Store. He also ranked first in the Forbes China Rich List in 2006.
In 2008, Huang Guangyu was sentenced to 14 years in prison from November 17, 2008 to November 16, 2022 on charges of illegal business operation, insider trading and bribery of a unit. The sentence was commuted twice during this period.
On June 24, 2020, the Beijing First Intermediate Court paroled Huang Guangyu, and the parole test period is from the date of parole to February 16, 2021.
Huang Guangyu’s arrest is rumored to be related to Zhou Yongkang, the former secretary of the Chinese Communist Party’s Political and Legal Committee. There were reports back then that Huang was retaliated against for offending powerful figures in his business career.
According to the Shanghai Securities News, Zhou Yongkang, then minister of public security, gave personal instructions to make Huang Guangyu’s case an iron-clad one.
But overseas media said that the reason why the then Chinese Communist Party leaders Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao wanted to arrest Huang Guangyu was to get rid of Zhou Yongkang’s “successor” Zheng Shaodong.
The land media “China Business News” has quoted informed sources as saying that although Huang Guangyu’s case received a notice of acceptance for retrial in July 2016, the case has not progressed for up to two years. The sources said that Huang Guangyu’s case was decided when Zhou Yongkang was in charge of the CPC Central Committee’s Political and Legal Affairs Commission, and there was some human intervention.
After Zhou Yongkang’s fall, Huang Guangyu’s case took a turn for the worse.
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