On the evening of January 10, news of China’s former richest man’s arrest went viral.
Why was he arrested?
Several former Hanergy employees confirmed the news , but it’s still unclear why he was arrested. His company , Hanergy’s ZTE Holding Group Co., Ltd. also ceased operations few days after his arrest on December 22, 2022.
At the beginning of 2015, Li Hejun successfully topped the “2015 Hurun Global Rich List”,
with a net worth of 160 billion yuan, surpassing Ma Yun and Wang Jianlin, becoming the richest man in China in that year.
According to the data, in 1989, Li Hejun started from scratch, borrowing 50,000 yuan from his university teachers to create Hanergy Group . After more than 20 years, his company has become the world’s largest private hydropower and thin-film solar energy enterprise.
However, in 2015, Hanergy Film Power Group, a listed company under Hanergy, was investigated by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission for suspected market manipulation.
The company’s stock price plummeted by nearly 47%, and its market value instantly shrank by 144 billion Hong Kong dollars, and Li Hejun lost his place as China’s richest man. In July of the same year, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange received instructions from the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong to stop trading with Hanergy thin-film power generation shares.