China’s ‘King of IPO’ sentenced to 18 years in prison, three years after stock market rout

The former vice-chairman of China’s securities regulator has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for taking bribes and insider trading, nearly three years after he was put under investigation in the aftermath of a stock market collapse.

Yao Gang was found guilty of taking 69 million yuan (US$10 million) in bribes and pocketing 2.1 million yuan from insider trading, the Handan Intermediate People’s Court in central Hebei province said in a statement on its website.

As well as the prison term Yao was fined 11 million yuan and all of his “illegal gains” were confiscated, the statement said.

Yao was removed from office in November 2015 having earlier being a central figure in Beijing’s efforts to bolster prices during a stock market rout in the summer of that year that wiped about US$5 trillion off the value of shares.

Yao spent about 22 years at the China Securities Regulatory Commission and during his 13 years in charge of approving initial public offering applications became known in the industry as “The King of IPO”. He was later promoted to the position of vice-chairman with responsibility for stock and futures markets.