Chinese billionaire tech banker Bao Fan mysteriously vanishes
February 17, 2023
One of China’s most high-profile bankers, billionaire investor Bao Fan, has gone missing — marking the latest disappearance of a top executive in the tightly controlled country.
China Renaissance Holdings said in a market update Thursday that it has been “unable to contact” its chairman and CEO in recent days.
His disappearance is the latest in a series of cases of prominent Chinese executives going missing with little explanation amid President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign.
Shares of the Beijing-based China Renaissance Holdings plunged by as much as 50% in early trading Friday on the news of Bao’s mysterious disappearance, wiping off $357 million in market value. They were down about 28% in the afternoon.
The company said it was “not aware of any information that indicates Mr. Bao’s unavailability” was related to the business of the group.
Bao, Renaissance Bank’s founder and controlling shareholder, has worked on major deals including e-commerce company JD.com’s $2 billion initial public offering and the public listing of short video platform Kuaishou in Hong Kong.
The dealmaker’s disappearance comes after the top-tier investment bank’s president, Cong Lin, was taken away by Chinese authorities in September last year, according to Chinese news media outlet Caixin, which first reported the news.
In 2015 alone, at least five executives became unreachable without notice and little explanation, including Fosun Group chairman Guo Guangchang, the billionaire dubbed “the Warren Buffett of China.”
Fosun later said it was assisting with investigations regarding a personal matter.
Dozens of officials and finance executives at institutions such as Everbright Securities, China Construction Bank and major bank ICBC have been caught up in Beijing’s anti-graft probes.
In 2020, real estate magnate Ren Zhiqiang disappeared for several months after he allegedly criticized Xi over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, reported CNN Business. Ren was eventually sentenced to 18 years on corruption charges.
Wu Xiaohui, chairman of the insurance company Anbang, met a similar fate after being detained for an investigation in 2017.
The same year, billionaire asset manager Xiao Jianhua was abducted from his Four Seasons hotel room in Hong Kong and brought to mainland China, where he was sentenced to 13 years for fraud and corruption.
Bao earlier worked at Credit Suisse and Morgan StanleyHe founded China Renaissance in 2005 and took it public in 2018, raising $346 million.
Sauce/more: https://nypost.com/2023/02/17/chinese-billionaire-tech-banker-bao-fan-goes-missing/
BAO FAN: 2 prior entries on QResear.ch - 1 Podesta email, lengthy email from Carolyn Wu, former WSJ editor: https://web.archive.org/web/20170114173336/https://www.wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/815
and the 2nd is from Offshore Leaks, BAO FAN not specifically named
There is another but it wasn't archived and this is all available via search:
"MEMORANDUM FOR HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON. Date:Saturday, June 27, 2015. Time: 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm . Location:Home of Joshua Kurtzig and Carolyn Wu . … YOU are headlining a fundraising reception in support of Hillary for America at the home of Carolyn Wu with Hillstarters and prospective raisers in Beijing. This is our first Hillary for America …"
Carolyn Wu work history:
Apple
PR Director, Asia Pacific
2010 - Present
Motorola Mobility (a Lenovo Company)
PR Director
2006 - 2010 • 4 years
Nike
Global Issues Manager
2000 - 2004 • 4 years
The White House
Assistant to the Chief of Staff
1996 - 2000 • 4 years
https://www.apollo.io/people/Carolyn/Wu/61fd842629a99d0001ce5eab
Apple adds former Wall Street Journal editor to its China PR team
November 18, 2016
Beijing-based Carolyn Wu leads Apple’s media relations in China, and Wei will add significant experience to the team, having spent more than 18 years in media, across both print and broadcast. That includes more than a decade as a columnist at Reuters in New York and Hong Kong, and close to four years at the Journal, where she wrote about business and markets as its Hong Kong-based China Wealth and Luxury Editor.
https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/18/apple-adds-former-wall-street-journal-editor-to-its-china-pr-team/
Unclear about Bao Fan but Carolyn Wu appears to be CIA (imho)