On December 23, the former chairman of the board of directors of China’s asset management giant Zhongzhi Group, Gao Xingshan, and other senior executives were sentenced to 4 years and 6 months to 14 years in prison for illegally absorbing public deposits, and were also fined.
According to a statement from the Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court on WeChat public account, on December 23, the court publicly pronounced the verdict on the case of Gao Xingshan, former chairman of the board of directors of Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co., Ltd., and others for allegedly committing the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits, and made the aforementioned judgment. The work of recovering losses is still ongoing.
Zhongzhi Group, founded by Jie Zhikun in 1995, claims to be the largest private financial conglomerate in China. It has four wealth management companies under its umbrella, namely Hengtian, Xinhui, Datang, and Gaosheng, and five asset management companies, namely Zhonghai Shengrong, Zhongzhi International, Zhongxin Rongchuang, Zhongzhi Capital, and Shituo Rongsheng, with total assets once exceeding 1 trillion yuan.
According to a previous report by “NOWnews”, Zhongzhi Enterprise Group initially started out as an industrial company engaged in paper material production. The reason why the Zhongzhi Group was able to dominate the capital market for a long time was largely due to Jie Zhikun using the wealth management platform to construct a substantial fund pool, creating a complex network of Zhongzhi factions. In addition, he has a brother named Jie Zhichun who serves as the general manager of the Central Huijin, which is referred to as the “national purse”. Although Jie Zhikun has always emphasized that the Zhongzhi Group he controls has no relation to his brother, at that time many people still associated the two.
Around 2019, with Beijing authorities consecutively cracking down on financial giants and intensifying efforts to prevent capital flight, Jie Zhikun’s “Zhongzhi faction” and Xiao Jianhua’s “Tomorrow faction” were both targeted. Dozens of companies like Huaxia Happiness, Rongchuang, Evergrande Group, Sunshine City, and Blu-ray Group, closely related to them, also faced financial troubles.
On the evening of December 18, 2021, Zhongzhi Enterprise Group issued a death notice stating that Jie Zhikun, the actual controller of the “Zhongzhi faction”, passed away at 9:40 a.m. on the same day in Beijing at the age of 60.
After Jie Zhikun’s passing, Zhongzhi Group was revealed to be facing a liquidity crisis. On November 22, 2023, Zhongzhi published an open letter to investors disclosing assets of around 200 billion yuan, but debts and interest amounted to 420-460 billion yuan, indicating insolvency and inability to repay. In 2024, Zhongzhi Group applied for bankruptcy liquidation to the court. In June 2025, it officially entered bankruptcy liquidation proceedings, with a total debt of 3.6 trillion yuan.
Previous reports:
49 people from Zhongzhi Group were prosecuted for illegal absorption of public deposits
New media exposes latest developments in Zhongzhi Group case