(Bloomberg) -- A Chinese-Canadian tycoon who was seized at a Hong Kong hotel five years ago and has lost much of his sprawling business empire to the Chinese government is about to go on trial, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

Prosecutors in Shanghai plan to charge Xiao Jianhua with illegal collection of public deposits, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the situation. Hearings could start this month, according to the article.

Xiao has told his family to have faith “in the Chinese government and Chinese law,” the Journal quoted his older brother, Xiao Xinhua, as saying. The case was “very complicated and full of drama,” he added in the report published late Thursday.

Xiao has been missing since early 2017 when he was taken from his room at the Four Seasons in Hong Kong, where he he had been staying for several years after fleeing China. China’s central bank later identified Tomorrow Group, the investment conglomerate owned by Xiao as one of several “financial holding companies” that should be scrutinized in their ownership structure, related transactions and source of funding.

China Takes Over Companies Linked to Disappeared Financier

In mid-2020, regulators in China assumed control of nine financial firms linked to Xiao, among them Huaxia Life Insurance Co., Tianan Life Insurance Co., Tianan Property Insurance Co. and New Times Trust Co. 

The government’s move came as authorities stepped up efforts to maintain financial stability, in part because Covid-19 was harming economic growth and sour loans were piling up.

Before his disappearance, the Hurun Report of China’s richest people said Xiao, a student leader at the time of 1989 pro-democracy protests, was part of a fortune estimated at almost $6 billion.

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