A former deputy branch manager of China Minsheng Bank's Beijing Branch Aerospace Bridge Sub-branch, surnamed Xiao, has opened social media accounts and become an internet celebrity following his release from prison. Xiao was involved in a fake wealth management fraud case worth 2.7 billion yuan in 2017 and was ultimately sentenced to 9 years in prison.
Recently, a man claiming to be a former deputy branch manager of a bank opened social media accounts, sharing content about alleged financial insider information from before his imprisonment, prison experiences, and personal reflections. Xiao posted his first video on August 19, and within just one week, his social media account had gained 22,000 followers.
In the videos, Xiao appears wearing glasses with gray hair. Despite having served time in prison, he seems to be in good mental condition.
However, today all of Xiao's account content has been removed, and his account has been banned from gaining new followers.
Xiao is suspected to be the former deputy branch manager of China Minsheng Bank's Beijing Branch Aerospace Bridge Sub-branch. The branch manager Zhang Ying (female) began in 2013 to use high interest rates as bait, deceiving victims into signing fake wealth management product purchase or transfer agreements, and transferring the funds to personal bank accounts under her control. She defrauded 147 victims of a total of 2.746 billion yuan.
Born in 1983, Xiao joined China Minsheng Bank's Beijing Branch Aerospace Bridge Sub-branch after university graduation, serving in various positions including customer manager, wealth management department manager, and trainee assistant manager. From late 2014, he served as deputy branch manager responsible for personal wealth management and other businesses.
Despite knowing that the wealth management products Zhang Ying was transferring to victims contained irregularities, Xiao still helped Zhang Ying promote these products to victims. He violated regulations by failing to deposit customer funds into the bank's wealth management accounts, forged transferor signatures on wealth management product transfer agreements, and affixed fake official seals of China Minsheng Bank's Aerospace Bridge Sub-branch that Zhang Ying had instructed employee He to create. This caused customer funds to escape bank supervision. Xiao participated in selling wealth management transfer products worth over 1.38 billion yuan.
In April 2017, Zhang Ying was taken away by public security authorities. Customers then learned that the principal and interest-guaranteed wealth management products they had previously purchased at the sub-branch were forgeries created by Zhang Ying and others. A fake wealth management case involving tens of billions of yuan gradually came to light.
In December 2019, the Beijing No.1 Intermediate Court issued a first-instance judgment, finding that Zhang Ying, with the intent of illegal possession, conspired with Xiao in the contract-signing process to fabricate facts and conceal the truth to defraud others of their property. Both individuals' actions constituted contract fraud. Zhang Ying was convicted of contract fraud and sentenced to life imprisonment, permanent deprivation of political rights, and confiscation of all personal property. Xiao was convicted of contract fraud and sentenced to ten years imprisonment, two years deprivation of political rights, and a fine of 100,000 yuan.
Both appealed, and the Beijing High Court's second-instance trial found Xiao guilty of absorbing customer funds without proper accounting, sentencing him to nine years imprisonment and a fine of 90,000 yuan. Zhang Ying's appeal was rejected, and her sentence and charges remained unchanged.