China's HNA disclose embezzlements of nearing $10 billion

[BlankBox]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-hna/three-listed-units-of-chinas-hna-disclose-embezzlements-of-nearly-10-billion-idUSKBN2A009Z
A total of 61.5 billion yuan ($9.57 billion) had been embezzled by shareholders and other related parties, Shanghai-listed Hainan Airlines Holding Co, HNA Infrastructure Investment Group Co and Shenzhen-listed CCOOP Group Co said late on Friday.

[atakacs]

I am sure they have some aviation interrests but could anyone explain in more details ?

[andrasz]

HNA Group is the parent of Hainan Airlines, Hong Kong Airlines, and several other aviation-related entities (they were forced to divest of Swissport a couple of months ago). Having personally dealt with their chairman many moons ago, all I can say is that I'm not surprised the least.

[lederhosen]

Was the chairman the same guy who died falling off a wall in not terribly clear circumstances after some of this had come to light?

[sitigeltfel]

Nothing suspicious about it, simply a tragic accident caused by misadventure. I pass that spot almost every day and as well as the members of his party who witnessed it, I know two locals who saw it, one of which called the emergency services.

[lederhosen]

I seem to remember something about him taking pictures at the time. Unlucky guy then, dies in tragic accident and his company gets defrauded of billions. I know some people who worked for Hainan and they seemed happy about the deal while it lasted, with the usual caveats about time to get on line etc.

[andrasz]

He was co-chairman, I meant the other founder who carried on. Typical story of leveraged ego combined with dread of losing face.
Indeed T/Cs for foreign crew were not bad in the beginning.

[FlightDetent]

atakacs

Via Bohai Leasing (the sole aircraft leasing company licenced in mainland China) owns Avolon Leasing who is a prime player. Not to mention what once was full 14 airlines owned by the group. Probably half the foreign pilot headcount in CAAC land had been working for them pre-covid, on some of the finest deals too.

Given their fleet size, any out-of-the box solutions could ripple the industry globally. For instance, if the rulers of China nationalize part of it (happened already as the state-owned banks purchased a great deal of HNA's outstanding debts) and decide to use the airline group for nursing the COMAC C919 to operational maturity. Perhaps even arbitrarily ousting the 737MAX from the domestic market to make room, that's a sure landscape changer.

What kind of deal they will offer to foreign pilots in the future if any at all will shape our job marketplace significantly.

[Count von Altibar]

I think the Chinese gig of big bucks and jobs a plenty is over more or less at least for the next few years. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the HNA group airframes, maybe absorbed into CSA, China Eastern and Air China it'll be interesting to watch. I hope Hong Kong Airlines keeps on going but probably unlikely.

[Dog Star]

"Nothing suspicious about it, simply a tragic accident caused by misadventure. I pass that spot almost every day and as well as the members of his party who witnessed it, I know two locals who saw it, one of which called the emergency services."

What is it, some kind of spectator sport gone wrong?