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The formerly huge money to buy the British soccer club, now more than six months in prison of the Chinese Communist Party

 2021年2月6日

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that Xia Jiantong, a 47-year-old Chinese tycoon who bought Aston Villa, one of the largest soccer clubs in the United Kingdom, for 76 million pounds in 2016, was arrested last month for “breach of trust and damage to the interests of a listed company.

According to the report, official information shows that Xia Jiantong is currently detained in Yixing City Detention Center in Jiangsu Province, and his Family said that the case is an “economic dispute” over an outstanding debt of about 200 million yuan during Xia Jiantong’s management of Remote Cable Company, which is a cable product manufacturer listed in Shenzhen.

Xia, a multi-millionaire investor and chief executive of China’s Rui Kang Group, was the de facto controller of Remote from late 2016 to March 2018, the report said. The family said the incident involved Remote guaranteeing a loan from Xia’s Rui Kang Sports and borrowing jointly with Rui Kang Sports, and that Remote reported the case to police after some of the debt failed to be repaid.

According to China Caixin, Xia was criminally detained by the Wuxi Public Security Bureau on July 8, 2020, and was arrested on July 15 of last month.

According to Sohu.com, Xia Jiantong went from glittering star to a shadowy fall in just four years, and from 2014 to 2016, Xia Jiantong, through his subsidiary Rui Kang Investment, acquired a large number of shares in Lotus MSG, the “No. 1 MSG stock in China,” “No. 1 daily chemical stock in China” Sofitel and Remote Cable shares, his “Rui Kang system” empire took shape.

In May 2016, the British Astrakhan Football Club announced the transfer of 100% of its shares to Rui Kang Group for £7,600, and Xia Jiantong became the new chairman of the club. Xia, who is as popular as ever, faced media questions about whether he was worth more than $1 billion, saying, “I think it’s probably more than that.”

Then, in the context of financial de-leveraging, his Raycom system began to collapse and the share prices of his three listed companies collapsed, leaving him in debt.