New | NVC Lighting founder arrested in Huizhou, mainland China media report

NVC Lighting founder and former chief executive Wu Changjiang is under criminal detention in Huizhou, Guangdong, and his 1.1 billion yuan (HK$1.37 billion) worth of shares has been frozen, according to mainland media reports.

The reports cited people from the communications department of the local police station as confirming Wu’s arrest, without saying when it happened or giving other details.

The most recent update on Wu’s Sina Weibo microblog, the mainland’s answer to Facebook, was on December 2. “Shanghai is cold in the recent two days! But my heart is warm after meeting with a few distributors in the East China region,” he said.

“I’m moved to tears. Thank you for your trust and support, I won’t give up! Tomorrow will be better.”

NVC is China’s largest lighting manufacturer. Wu has been fighting chairman Wang Donglei for control of the company.

NVC’s board dismissed Wu as chief executive on August 8, and he was removed from the board at an extraordinary general meeting on August 29. Wang alleged that Wu embezzled about 400 million yuan from NVC’s bank accounts in the Chongqing branches of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Minsheng Banking Corp, and an additional 173 million yuan from the Chongqing branch of Bank of China. Wang also alleged unnamed executives at the banks colluded with Wu in embezzling the funds and misleading NVC with false information.