[JURIST] A Beijing court on Friday indicted Huang Guangyu, formerly China’s richest man, with insider trading, bribery, and illegal business practices. The charges, brought by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate come almost 15 months after Huang was initially placed under detention. His case has been the subject of intense media coverage in China involving allegations of bribery to high-level Shanghai police among others. According to reports, Huang has been under investigation by the Beijing Municipal People’s Procuratorate for more than two years. He was previously the chairman of Pengrun Investments and founder of subsidiary GOME Electrical Appliances, both publicly traded on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.
Huang’s indictment is part of a wider campaign in China to crack down on corruption, which is seen by many as a threat to China’s future stability. Last week, the president of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) called for increased efforts to fight corruption among the judiciary. The president’s statement came just two weeks after former SPC vice president Huang Songyou was convicted on bribery and embezzlement charges. Earlier in January, the Communist Party of China announced increasing oversight of the families of government officials to control corruption. Leader of the People’s Republic, Hu Jintao, has made it a priority to combat grafting in China, utilizing the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection to coordinate anti-corruption efforts among the public security, finance, judiciary, and diplomatic agencies.