Household HSBC Watch

On March 25, 2005, China News reported that the former chairman of China Construction Bank Zhang Enzhao resigned for “personal reasons” last week, a day after Hong Kong media reported that he was suspected of corruption and put under house arrest.

His son Zhang Jigang, who goes by his Cantonese alias Cheung Kei-kong, has since disappeared from his investment banking job at global banking giant HSBC in Hong Kong, reports have said. A US lawsuit filed in December claims his education in Britain was financed by bribes accepted by his father. In the California lawsuit, mainland consultancy and services firm Grace and Digital Information Technology accuse Zhang of having accepted one million dollars in bribes from American supplier Alltel Information Services.