BEIJING: The billionaire owner of China's largest home appliance chain is being investigated for "economic crimes," a local news agency said Thursday, after days of mystery over his fate.
Beijing police were conducting the probe into Huang Guangyu, the 39-year-old founder of Gome Electrical Appliances Holdings and China's second richest man, the news agency said, giving no further details.
A Chinese financial magazine on Sunday said Huang was taken in last week for questioning over wild fluctuations in the price of a company controlled by his brother.
Shares in Gome on the Hong Kong stock exchange have been suspended since Monday, although the company has not disclosed Huang's whereabouts.
With assets of 18.4 billion yuan (2.7 billion dollars), Huang was ranked as number two on a list of China's richest people issued by US magazine Forbes in October.
In 2006, Forbes ranked him as the nation's richest man with 2.3 billion dollars in assets.
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