Wison Engineering Says Chinese Police Arrested Chairman
Hua Bangsong Is Accused of Bribery, According to Oil-Services Firm
Wison Engineering Chairman Hua Bangsong appeared at a news conference in Hong Kong in 2012. Reuters
BEIJING—Chinese police arrested the chairman of Wison Engineering Services Co. on allegations of bribery, the Chinese oil-engineering provider said.
The company was informed by a family member of Chairman Hua Bangsong on Thursday that he had been formally arrested "over alleged bribery activity," Wison said late Friday in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. "The board hasn't been informed of any detail of the allegation," the statement said.
Wison in September said Mr. Hua was assisting Chinese authorities in an unspecified probe and that authorities had seized records and frozen some of the company's bank accounts.
The company on Monday said it had no further updates. It wasn't known whether Mr. Hua, a co-founder of the company, had a lawyer. Mr. Hua's brother, Hua Bangshan, declined to comment.
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Mr. Hua was among several Chinese executives who disappeared from public view in 2013 as authorities targeted China's oil industry as part of an antigraft campaign by President Xi Jinping . Several senior oil-industry executives in addition to Mr. Hua have been detained.
They include Jiang Jiemin , a onetime chief of China National Petroleum Corp. Mr. Jiang, who most recently served as head of the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, was removed from his post and detained for what a government anticorruption agency called "severe disciplinary violations." The phrase is typically reserved for cases of alleged corruption.
Neither Mr. Jiang nor several other oil executives removed from their posts in recent months have been formally charged. None could be reached for comment since the investigation began.
Several oil-industry officials and executives detained since last year have had close ties to onetime senior Chinese leader Zhou Yongkang.
Mr. Zhou retired from the Communist Party's top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, in 2012 as part of a once-a-decade change in leadership. Neither the government nor the Communist Party has publicly accused Mr. Zhou or his family of wrongdoing.
Wison in September said a finance manager at one of its subsidiaries was assisting authorities and couldn't be reached. Since then, the company has given no update about the status of the finance official, Zhao Hongbin.
Wison long has been dogged by speculation in the blogosphere that it expanded through a connection to Mr. Zhou's family. Company executives have denied any link to the Zhou family.
Wison's statement to the stock exchange denied reports in Chinese language media that Mr. Hua had been holding shares in the company on behalf of a person named Zhou Bin, the name also used by Mr. Zhou's son. The company described Mr. Hua as Wison's single largest shareholder, representing roughly 78% of its issued share capital.
"Mr. Hua Bangsong does not hold any shares as nominee or on behalf of any other person," the statement said.
Wison said media reports accusing the company of receiving unlawful advantages from an engineering contract related to a petrochemical project owned by state-controlled PetroChina Co. 601857.SH -0.90% were "unsubstantiated and unfounded."
Trading in Wison's shares has been suspended in Hong Kong since September.
Wison said in December that it expected to record a significant loss for 2013. It said it was still assessing the financial impact of last year's investigation by Chinese authorities.
