 Chinese brokerage chief reappears after going missing Hong Kong (AFP) Dec 23, 2015 - The Hong Kong chief of a major Chinese brokerage who went missing last month has returned to work after "assisting" with an investigation on the mainland, the company said Wednesday. The disappearance of Yim Fung, chairman of Guotai Junan International, came at a time when Beijing is targeting the financial sector in an anti-graft campaign. In a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange, the firm said that Yim would resume his duties Wednesday. "Dr. Yim, in his personal capacity, had been assisting in certain investigations carried out by mainland authorities during the period he was unable to be reached," the statement said. "Neither Dr. Yim himself nor the company was the subject of the investigations." Last month Guotai International filed a statement to the Hong Kong exchange saying it had been unable to reach Yim. The Hong Kong-listed firm is a subsidiary of Guotai Junan Securities, one of China's biggest security companies, and its shares plummeted on news of the disappearance. On Wednesday the firm's stocks were up 6.9 percent in morning trade at HK$2.79 after news of Yim's reappearance. Yim's month-long absence came as China zeroes in on the financial sector, as part of a sweeping anti-corruption campaign in the wake of a stock market rout that rocked global markets over the summer. Chinese authorities have been pursuing crooked officials since President Xi Jinping took office in 2013, a crusade that some experts have called a political purge. State media reported in November that Yao Gang, the deputy chief of China's top securities regulator, is under investigation for committing "severe disciplinary violations" -- normally a euphemism for graft. In October, China's anti-corruption watchdog said it would expand its inspections to major financial institutions, which are already under pressure after a spectacular stock market meltdown. After soaring 150 percent in one year, Shanghai stocks went into a tailspin in June, tumbling nearly 40 percent in a few weeks despite massive intervention by the authorities.
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Chinese police are investigating a troubled state-managed metal exchange for criminal offences, the local government said late Tuesday, months after it failed to pay investors.
Fanya Metals Exchange, which claims to be the world's largest minor metals exchange and managed around 40 billion yuan ($6.2 billion) in assets, has defaulted on payments to a reported 220,000 investors since April due to plunging commodity prices worldwide.
The exchange, in the southwestern city of Kunming, offered investors a bet on increased metal prices, promising some speculators double-digit returns on their investments.
Police have opened an investigation into the exchange on suspicion of "illegal business practices", a statement on the city's news portal said.
The announcement comes as Fanya chairman Shan Jiuliang has been missing since October 15, according to a stock exchange statement from Imagi International Holdings, another company Shan chairs.
Imagi said Shan had missed two board meetings.
Incensed Fanya investors seized Shan at a Shanghai hotel in August and handed him over to police, reports said. He was later released.
In October the payment crisis sparked protests in Beijing and Shanghai, with police detaining hundreds of people in the capital.
Yu Haichao, who was detained when she travelled to Beijing to participate in the protests, said she was unsure if she could get her money back even after Fanya was probed.
She invested more than 170,000 yuan from her child's education fund in the exchange.
Police forced her and other protesters to sign a pledge saying they would not attend any gathering related to the exchange, Yu said earlier, and the following day officials took her back to her home province, Shanxi.
"Police built a case for Fanya, but I don't know whether it is a good thing or a bad one for investors," Yu told AFP Wednesday. "I feel like the case is just a consolation to people and (a way) to maintain social stability."
The exchange's payment problems pre-date China's market rout earlier this year, which wiped out trillions of dollars of market capitalisation and prompted authorities to launch an extraordinary bail-out plan.
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