The Shady Deals Behind a Veteran Banker’s Suspended Death Sentence

The recent suspended death sentence handed to a former chairman of an investment platform in China has cast a spotlight on the shady dealings that led to massive losses for one of the country’s 12 national joint-stock banks.

Wang Weihua, who was also president of Zheshang Industrial Integration, along with two former senior executives at China Zheshang Bank Co. Ltd. (CZB), was convicted last month of a scheme to steer bank loans to dozens of Zheshang Industrial’s partner firms, leaving the Shanghai- and Hong Kong-listed bank saddled with about 12.6 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) in bad assets, according to a court document exclusively obtained by Caixin.