Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign has claimed more victims. China’s largest brokerage, CITIC Securities, said it could not contact the heads of its investment banking and global investment banking sectors. Bo Xilai crony Xu Ming, 44, dies in prison from a heart attack.

Beijing (AsiaNews) – China’s largest brokerage, CITIC Securities, said on Sunday that it could not contact its two top investment bankers, Chen Jun and Yan Jian Lin, both of whom appear to be the target of an ongoing anti-corruption probe.

Chen is head of the company’s investment banking sector and Yan is head of global investment banking, CITIC said in a statement filed with Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing. So far, six of the firm’s top eight executive committee members are missing.

Mainland Chinese business media Caixin on Friday reported the pair had been detained and are either under investigation or assisting in an investigation by authorities. Four executives were taken away by police earlier this year, including company president Chen Boming.

According to several experts, CITIC’s dominant role in the stock market led to the arrests. President Xi Jinping in fact singled the sector out as being at risk of corruption.

Since he came to power, Xi has vowed to fight 'tigers' and 'flies' (powerful leaders and lowly bureaucrats) in his anti-corruption drive.

This has led to the downfall of some of China’s top leaders, like former "security czar" Zhou Yongkang and former Chongqing mayor Bo Xilai.

Xu Ming, a former high-flying tycoon associated with Bo Xilai died recently. After founding Dalian Shide – a conglomerate that ranged from construction materials to insurance, real estate and soccer – in 1992, he became one of the mainland’s youngest billionaires.

The 44-year-old reportedly suffered a heart attack in a Hubei prison on Friday. He had been jailed for four years in late 2012, and would have been out in nine months.

• china
• corruption
• security
• brokerage
• dalian