Opening Scene
He kept 100 mistresses, hidden in luxury apartments across Beijing. He owned 100 mansions. And when investigators finally pried open his safes, they found rooms stacked with cash — so much it had to be hauled away by truck. This was Lai Xiaomin, China’s “God of Wealth.” In 2021, the Party dragged him to his execution.
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Story Summary
Born poor, Lai rose through the People’s Bank of China and regulators before taking the helm of China Huarong Asset Management in 2009 — a state “bad-debt” giant created to clean up toxic loans. Under his watch, Huarong ballooned in size and ambition, even as Lai consolidated power and turned the firm into his personal fiefdom.
By 2018, discipline inspectors moved in. State TV showed a room filled with over 200 million yuan in cash and detailed gold bars, luxury watches, and apartments tied to mistresses — a corruption ecosystem wrapped in patronage and intimidation. Courts later said Lai took or solicited 1.79 billion yuan (~$278M) in bribes between 2008 and 2018. He was sentenced to death on Jan 5, 2021 and executed on Jan 29, 2021.
The Hidden Angle
- Why the case shook China’s markets: Huarong sat at the heart of Beijing’s effort to stabilize banks; Lai’s fall exposed how state firms can morph into risk factories when a single boss controls the valves. Huarong’s later turmoil became a cautionary tale for hundreds of Chinese lenders with thin buffers and complex off-balance-sheet bets.
- “100 mistresses / 100 apartments” — where that came from: Caixin’s deep reporting traced dozens to 100+ properties linked to Lai’s network and documented the apartment “cash supermarket” later shown on CCTV — the most authoritative source of those sensational details.
Pull Quote
“Former China Huarong chairman executed after bribery conviction… 1.79 billion yuan in bribes.” — Reuters, Jan 29, 2021.
What It Means
Lai didn’t just skim — he built an internal market where promotions, contracts, and influence were priced in cash and sex. The “100 mistresses” were not tabloid garnish; they were control infrastructure. When the Party finally moved, the punishment was meant to terrify the system back into line.
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Related Silk Street Stories
- Lei Zhengfu: The Hotel Video That Toppled China’s Rising Party Boss
- Fu Xiaotian: The TV Host Who Vanished — and the Foreign Minister Who Disappeared With Her Shadow
- How Rosmah Stole from Schoolchildren — and Why Her Appeals Are Failing
Closing Reflection
A boy who once starved built a kingdom of appetite — cash rooms, numbered lovers, and a company bent to his will. In the end, the God of Wealth learned what every empire of greed learns: when the Party decides you’re done, wealth can’t buy absolution. Justice, in China, arrives with a gurney.
Follow our full Chinese Elite Exposed series on YouTube to uncover every chapter they tried to erase.
Before You Go…
Each story reveals another piece of the same truth: Power. Betrayal. Collapse.
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