Billionaire Gome Founder on Trial

Huang Guangyu's younger sister is photographed entering the courthouse on Thursday morning/ The Beijing News

The trial of Huang Guangyu, founder and former chairman of Gome Group - China's largest consumer electronics retailer, got underway at a Beijing court on Thursday. Huang, one of China's wealthiest individuals, has been charged with insider trading, illegal business dealings and bribery.

The trial began an 9am in the second courtroom of Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court and according to reports, proceedings continued on until 9.30 in the evening.

Aside from one reporter from the Xinhua News Agency, no other reporters were given permission to enter the courtroom, according to Legal Evening News.

According to a report in The Beijing News, Huang's wife Du Juan also appeared on charges of insider trading.

Xu Zhongmin, former chairman of Beijing Centralgate Technologies Company (BCTC), also appeared on charges of insider trading and revealing inside information.

The report alleged that during BCTC's listing process, Huang Guangyu opened over 80 securities accounts under other people's names and used inside information to profit from buying the company's shares at a low price and then selling them after the price had soared.

According to indictment documents obtained by The Beijing News, during two months from September to November in 2007, Huang Guangyu exchanged some 800 million Hong Kong dollars through a third party - Zhen Xiaowei, the daughter of Lian Chao's sister. Lian is widely known as the "gambling king of high seas" because of his involvement with floating casinos in Macao.

According to Chinese law, it is illegal to exchange currency outside of official sanctioned exchanges, those who seriously violate this regulation can be punished according to the charge of engaging in illegal business dealings.

In addition, according to Xinhua News Agency, Huang, as legal representative of Gome Group, was accused of sending 4.56 million yuan of cash and cash-equivalents to Xiang Huaizhu, former deputy director the Ministry of Public Security's Economic Crime Investigation Bureau and four other officials.

According to the Beijing News, Huang Guangyu disputed all three of the charges.

The Oriental Morning Post reported the rare appearance of leaders from China's Supreme People's Court, Beijing Higher People's Court and the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court at the trial.

The trial, which is scheduled to last for three days, the verdict will be announced at a later unspecified date.

Links and Sources
Economic Observer: 黄光裕案今开庭 两名代理律师及黄光裕其妹现身听审 (Chinese)
The Beijing News: 被指控三宗罪黄光裕提异议 新京报 (Chinese)
Xinhua: 一审黄光裕：被诉内幕交易获利3亿 新华社 (Chinese)
Beijing Evening News: 拨开黄光裕案的重重迷雾 (Chinese)
Oriental Daily: 黄光裕案速战速决一天审毕择期宣判 东方早报 (Chinese)
Legal Evening News: 黄光裕案上午开庭 (Chinese)