Australia jails former Hanlong boss Xiao for insider trading

The former boss of Hanlong Mining Investment, who was extradited to Australia in 2014 on insider-trading charges, was sentenced Friday to more than eight years in prison, AFP reports.

Xiao Hui—also known as Steven Xiao— pleaded guilty last year to conducting 102 illegal trades related to two Perth-based companies, Sundance Resources Ltd. and Bannerman Resources, while he was managing director of the Australian arm of Hanlong Mining.

The ex-mining boss quit Hanlong and fled Australia in 2011, as securities authorities opened up an insider-trading investigation against him and other Hanlong employees, as well as some of their family members. He never returned to Australia, until he was arrested at Hong Kong airport in January 2014, and later extradited.

Around the same time, Chinese authorities sentenced to death and later executed tycoon Liu Han, who had built an investment empire around his private Hanlong Group — the parent company of Hanlong Mining — based in Sichuan province, amid a broader crackdown on corruption.

Liu had been arrested in March 2013 when Hanlong Mining’s A$1.4bn bid for Sundance Resources ran into trouble and was subsequently dropped.

He was accused of participating in organized crime and mafia-related activities.