Brother joins billionaire entrepreneur in Chinese detention

Nov 29, 2008, 4:38 GMT

   Beijing - Chinese real-estate magnate Huang Junqin has followed his younger brother and billionaire businessman Huang Guangyu in being accused of 'economic crimes,' state media reported Saturday, citing police.

   Huang Junqin, founder and chief executive of the Beijing Towercrest Group Ltd, was detained Wednesday, Beijing police said.

   His brother - one of the country's wealthiest people as head of Gome Electrical Appliances, China's largest consumer electronics chain - was detained a week earlier for questioning.

   The investigations relate to manipulation of share prices last year of a Shanghai pharmaceutical company run by Huang Junqin, the Caijing business magazine quoted unidentified sources as saying.

   The younger Huang, 39, is also suspected of manipulating share trading of the Sanlian Commercial Co and Beijing Centergate Technologies Co, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said Friday.

   Also being investigated is Xu Zhongmin, the chairman of the Pengtai investment firm, in which Huang Guangyu is a stockholder, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

   Gome on Friday appointed an acting chairman after the detention of Huang Guangyu, who topped the Hunrun Institute's list of the richest Chinese this year with a fortune of 6.3 billion dollars.

   But the US business magazine Forbes put him in second place with a fortune half that size.

   His electronics chain has 1,300 stores and 300,000 employees.