On November 6, 2020, the Dongying Intermediate People's Court sentenced Cai Guohua to death with a two-year reprieve. In this way, he became the second chairman of Hengfeng Bank to receive a suspended death sentence after his death.
Starting from a commercial bank, two consecutive chairmen have been sentenced to death with a reprieve in just a few years, which is indeed rare in the financial field.
Turn your bank into your own ATM
Cai Guohua is a man of material born in Yangxin, Shandong, born in 1965.
After graduating from medical school at the age of 16, he began his medical career in a local hospital, and then successfully rose to the position of deputy secretary of the Yangxin County Party Committee of the Communist Youth League with his talent.
In 2007, Cai Guohua successfully served as the deputy mayor of Yantai City, and at this time his road to corruption was quietly unfolding.
According to reports, in 2007, Cai Guohua took advantage of his position to provide assistance to the person in charge of a certain enterprise in exchange for a total of 11 million yuan in bribes, and in the same year, he sought benefits by helping two companies in Qingdao participate in the bank's capital increase and share expansion activities, and finally received 30 million yuan worth of cash and a villa of 59.5 million yuan in return.
In addition, Cai Guohua has carried out a large area of packaging in terms of personal education. His experience includes a postdoctoral fellow in applied economics at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management and an EMBA at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.
However, his embezzlement became more and more serious. In 2013, Cai Guohua became chairman of Hengfeng Bank, but the bank was already corrupt at that time.
Jiang Xi, the former chairman of the board, sold the bank's shares to companies controlled by himself or relatives and friends, and conspired with other high-level executives to embezzle and accept bribes, involving a total amount of more than 750 million yuan.
Therefore, many people are full of expectations for the new chairman Cai Guohua, hoping that he can rectify discipline and rebuild a clean government.
However, Cai's performance was jaw-dropping. Soon after taking office, he acted arbitrarily, and almost all major and small matters were decided only by personal opinions. He then reimbursed the company's finances for his personal expenses under various guises.
For example, between 2015 and 2017, Cai Guohua reimbursed a total of 1.4276 million yuan of living expenses through the bank, and even the bank paid for his personal bodyguards, and in 2016, he took 8.218 million yuan worth of mahogany furniture that originally belonged to the bank for himself.
After his downfall, it was reported that he had spent huge sums of money to lease private jets to buy luxury goods overseas, and even spent 218,000 yuan to order a gold belt.
And the money spent is nothing compared to the loans he made in defiance of the regulations.
In 2017, Cai Guohua illegally granted a loan of 3.5 billion yuan to a company in Shijiazhuang, which was "grateful" and gave a luxury villa at Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island as a thank you, and in the same year, he provided financial assistance to Rizhao Iron and Steel Holding Group in exchange for a political donation of 600 million yuan.
With such a "typical demonstration" by the chairman, Hengfeng Bank has gradually become a "cash machine" for many executives.
In May 2016, rumors of Hengfeng Bank's executives privately dividing public funds exploded, and Luan Yongtai, the former chairman of Hengfeng Bank, was forced to surrender and admit that he had obtained 21 million yuan in black money. On the other hand, he publicly exposed Cai Guohua's embezzlement of 38 million yuan of public funds, claiming that he had been severely beaten and threatened his life.
In recent years, the turmoil caused by many problems of Hengfeng Bank has been quite eye-catching, and its internal shortcomings have also surfaced.
Since September 2017, Cai Guohua has been under surveillance by relevant authorities. Soon after, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) exposed serious violations such as Hengfeng Bank's illegal implementation of employee equity incentive plans, and held a trial and imposed a fine of 166.9 million yuan.
At the trial on June 9, 2020, Cai Guohua, who is over half a hundred years old, was charged with various crimes such as corruption, embezzlement of public funds, accepting bribes and illegally granting loans, involving up to 10.3 billion yuan.
However, Cai Guohua took a tough attitude in court, refused to admit guilt and repeatedly threatened judicial officers in an attempt to evade legal sanctions. Prosecutors said that Cai Guohua had no remorse and "defied the law and was extremely arrogant", so he recommended that the court impose severe punishment.
Finally, on November 6, 2020, Cai Guohua was sentenced to a suspended death sentence, and all personal property will be recovered.
As a rare corruption case in the financial field, Cai Guohua's ending is very pleasant. This case is undoubtedly another warning and reminder to the mainland's financial regulatory system.