Accused deny paper’s charges
Print Edition
Orient Group Inc, a privately-owned company, and Li Xiaolin, daughter of a former Chinese premier, both denied involvement in the sale of shares in New China Life Insurance to Zurich Insurance and they refuted The Daily Telegraph’s allegations of bribing senior Chinese officials in the deal.
The newspaper reported last Thursday that Zurich Insurance bought shares of China’s biggest private insurer, New China Life, years before foreign companies were allowed to do so by allegedly bribing Chinese officials.
Li, CEO of China Power International Development, and the daughter of former premier Li Peng, was said to have brokered the deal in 1995. The Swiss insurer paid US$16.9 million into an offshore account as a “good faith fee” to show its commitment to the deal. The money was alleged to have been used to bribe several high-ranking Chinese officials who would decide whether to allow foreign companies to enter China’s financial sector, according to the newspaper.
But the chairman of Orient Group, Zhang Hongwei, said in a statement yesterday the allegation was a “malicious slander” as Li did not participate in any commercial activities of the company itself or its associated firms. He said Orient Group did not sell any stake in New China Life to the Swiss insurer.
Last Friday CPID said on behalf of Li that she reserves the right to take legal action against the rumor-mongers.
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