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Ant Group Implicated in Graft Scandal by CCTV Report – FT

CCTV documentary alleged private companies made “unreasonably high payments” to the brother of former CCP head in Hangzhou in return for policy incentives and support in buying real estate


Alibaba founder Jack Ma is seen at a conference in Shanghai in Sept 2018. File photo: Reuters

 

Jack Ma’s Ant Group has been implicated in a corruption scandal by a documentary on state broadcaster China Central Television, adding to pressure on the billionaire’s internet empire, already hit hard by a regulatory crackdown over the past 15 months, the Financial Times reported.

The CCTV documentary alleged that private companies made “unreasonably high payments” to the brother of the former Chinese Communist Party head of Hangzhou. According to public records and two sources close to the deals, a unit of Ant Group bought two plots of land at a discount in Hangzhou in 2019 after taking stakes in two mobile payment businesses owned by the party secretary’s younger brother.

Read the full report:The Financial Times.

 

ALSO SEE:

China’s Cinda Scraps $944m Investment In Ant Finance Unit

Ant Group ordered to restructure as a financial institution

Jack Ma under pressure to sell control of Ant, sources claim

 

 

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Jim Pollard

Jim Pollard is an Australian journalist based in Thailand since 1999. He worked for News Ltd papers in Sydney, Perth, London and Melbourne before travelling through SE Asia in the late 90s. He was a senior editor at The Nation for 17+ years.