Not that many tycoons end up in jail - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf by Getty Images via Daylife

For a while ending up at Rupert Hoogewerf's Hurun rich list seemed a receipt for trouble. Tycoon after tycoon got into trouble with China's authorities and some ended up in jail. In a new report, here quoted in the China Daily, "The Hurun Report: Rich in Trouble", the firm analyses the track record of Chna's rich and concluded that it is not that bad.

Researchers for the Hurun Report, an annual list of China's rich and powerful, yesterday revealed that 19 of the 1,330 business tycoons listed in the past 10 years are either in jail or are waiting for sentencing on bribery charges.

Names like Yang Bin, Cui Mingjie and Huang Guangyu have appealed much to the imagination of the media, but are not - like sometimes suggested - only the top of an iceberg.

Rupert Hoogewerf, founder and publisher of the Hurun Report, said ethics and the history of the country's economic development are partly to blame for these problems.

"In the '80s and early '90s, private companies in the country were not allowed to have accounts in banks. Difficulties with fundraising led many private businessmen into tax evasion and bribery," he said in the report.

He said that having 1.4 percent of the listed billionaires in trouble is a "normal" ratio for a booming country.

Commercial Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. If you are interested in sharing his thoughts at your conference or meeting, do get in touch.

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