Posted on 02/21/2022 9:53:20 AM PST by SeekAndFind
It looks like the CCP is again beating the bushes and shaking the trees to find more incriminating evidence of corruption and illegality - and other 'dirt' - involving Ant Group and its founder, Jack Ma. About a month ago, Ma and Ant Group were implicated in one of China's biggest corruption scandals in recent memory: it involved a former top CCP official in Hangzhou, the city where Ant got its start.
Now, the CPP has ordered the country's banks and other firms to scour their records for any more 'evidence' of any potentially corrupt dealings involving Ant. Beijing has been seeking to punish the company since it abruptly scrapped its planned IPO back in the fall of 2020, before taking steps to limit the company's growth potential.
Since then, CEO Jack Ma has become something of a ghost, occasionally disappearing from public view for long stretches of time. News that China's National Audit Office is leading what has been described as "by far the most thorough and wide-ranging look into deals with Ant" suggests authorities are looking to quickly build another case against the company.
Here's more from Bloomberg.
Multiple regulators, including the banking watchdog, recently told institutions under their oversight to closely examine all exposure they had to Ant, its subsidiaries and even its shareholders up to January, said the people, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. Those people described this as by far the most thorough and wide-ranging look into deals with Ant and said institutions were told they must report findings back as soon as possible.
It was unclear what triggered the new scrutiny or whether it will lead to any actions or conclusions by regulators, the people said. The National Audit Office is leading the initiative, two of the people said. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and the top auditor didn’t immediately respond to requests seeking comment. Ant declined to comment.
More than a year after the Chinese government snuffed out the biggest initial public offering in history by Ant, Beijing has showed no letup in a crackdown that has snowballed into an assault on every corner of China’s technosphere. Officials have handed out billions of dollars in antitrust fines to end the domination of a few heavyweights as President Xi Jinping pushes for more "common prosperity."
Chinese banks have been paring back their work with Ant since the crackdown, and thanks to government insistence that Ant form a bank holding company so it could be regulated "like a bank" - forcing it to keep a much larger amount of customer capital on its balance sheet. The new restrictions have caused the amount of assets held in Ant's money market-like products to shrink by one-third.
Chinese tech giants like Meituan, Tencent and Alibaba - the latter two of which own a stake in Ant Group - saw their share prices drop on the news as investors feared Beijing might be gearing up for another crack at the country's biggest tech giants, which have been facing unrelenting government pressure since shortly after the death of the Ant IPO. Chinese authorities have doled out billions of dollars in fines to tech giants as part of President Xi's "common prosperity" plan.
It's also bad news for Charlie Munger, who told the audience at his City Journal conference the other week that he's still optimistic about investing in China. He even praised the CCP for its extremely brusque handling of Ma. Speaking of the Ant Group IPO, Munger said: "The Chinese communists did the right thing they just called him up and said 'you aren't going to do it, sonny.'"
Ha ha.
Jack Ma is scum and deserves anything he gets.
I hope ChiComs all fight among themselves.
I’m sensing a theme: banks and tyrants go together like peas and carrots.
RE: Jack Ma is scum and deserves anything he gets.
Can you explain to us what he is scum?
He’s a Chinese Communist Party member.
They are learning from our Democrats.
RE: They are learning from our Democrats.
I think its vice versa.
RE: He’s a Chinese Communist Party member.
Maybe he had no choice but to join in order to preserve his business. You know, a practical act, not one born of ideology.
Of course he had a choice.
He used the corrupt system for his own advantage b
He actively supported the system.
He has no basis for complaint.
He did the same to others.
“Now, the CPP has ordered the country’s banks and other firms to scour their records for any more ‘evidence’ of any potentially corrupt dealings involving Ant.”
“We expect that evidence by the end of the week.”
Jack Ma is scum and deserves anything he gets. I hope ChiComs all fight among themselves.
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Horse Cloud was one of the most innovative, outspoken, influential, respected, admired and wealthiest men in China. He was crushed by the CCP for those very reasons. Only the CCP can have those qualities, all other are crushed, disappeared, killed, or have their organs harvested.
Communism has nothing to do with this situation, certainly not Ma. This situation is totally due to the fragile and paranoid CCP driven by self-declared President for Life, aka Emperor Xi Jinping’s enormous ego.
Mainland China is ruled by 7 or so families - each ruler coming from one of them. They always fight each other only coming together on common ground - usually centering around existential threats to their absolute rule.
This particular fight seems to indicate that the Ant group is still too powerful and that the manager the CCP sent in to control it, cannot. It also may indicate some behind the scenes maneuver and in-fighting - Xi Jinping is roundly hated by the other Committee members and barely survived the last Party Congress ; had he made the wrong move, he would have been killed.
The hoards of CCP Chinese and PLA troops in Canada own Trudeau. He’s just doing what he is told.
“Horse Cloud was one of the most innovative, outspoken, influential, respected, admired and wealthiest men in China. He was crushed by the CCP...”
Ma is CCP.
His success came from being CCP.
Who do the Chinese communists think they are, Trudeau? !!
Hopefully Bezos can read all about it in his Washington Post.
The Chinese Communists need to find scapegoats, and quickly.
The US Sun had an article on Chinese real estate - there have been problems for years.
Never miss an opportunity to piggyback on Western double standards.
Chinese and Russian governments will follow Justin’s Trudeau’s crackdown.
His success came from being CCP.
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You are totally mistaken ... your hatred clouds the reality.
No.
You are the one clouded.
Ma is 100% ChiCom and used it as they all do.
He had no competition and the full support of the ChiCom government and infrastructure to create an Amazon-like Chinese language company.
Ma was basically front man.
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