Once China’s hedge fund guru, Xu Xiang sentenced to 5.5 years in prison for market manipulation

Xu Xiang, once considered China’s hedge fund guru, was sentenced to a five-and-a-half year prison term on Monday after a court in east China’s Qingdao City, Shandong Province, found him guilty of stock market manipulation.

Xu was formally arrested in April 2016, on the charge of insider trading and market manipulation, Xinhua said. Xu was detained by police in late 2015, just after a stock market rescue scandal brought down senior regulators and executives in state-owned brokerage companies.

According to a statement summarising the ruling issued by Qingdao Intermediate People’s Court on Monday morning, between 2010 and 2015 Xu conspired with chairmen and senior management of 13 listed companies to take advantage of inside information to manipulate stock prices and turnover and reap huge profits.

Another two defendants, Wang Wei and Zhu Yong, were also sentenced for manipulating the securities market.

The statement also said the illicit gains made by Xu have been recovered, but the amount was not revealed in the statement.

Chinese financial media group Caixin cited unnamed sources as saying Xu was fined 11 billion yuan by the court, setting a new record for economic crimes by an individual.