Cover Story: Metal Magnate’s Fall From China’s Rich List to Bankruptcy

Liu Zhongtian, who founded Zhongwang Group and built it into Asia’s biggest maker of aluminum extrusion products while launching himself onto the Forbes list of China’s richest billionaires, now finds himself under legal restraint with his company in bankruptcy and much of his wealth evaporated. What went wrong?

Zhongwang was set to file a reorganization plan on June 20, nine months after creditors applied for a bankruptcy restructuring of the manufacturer’s hundreds of subsidiaries and affiliates.