Zhou Chengjian, one of China's richest fashion tycoons with a reported net worth of $2.4 billion, went missing on Wednesday of last week, making him the latest high-profile executive to disappear amid an anti-corruption crackdown that is currently being initiated by the Chinese government, according to The Examiner.
In response to the 51-year-old magnate's sudden disappearance, his Shanghai-based company, Metersbonwe, has opted to suspend trading its shares on the Chinese stock market from Thursday.
Zhou's disappearance comes less than a month after another Chinese billionaire, Guo Guangchang, more commonly known as "China's Warren Buffet," went missing on Dec. 10. Guo's company, Fosun International, also suspended trading its shares on Dec. 11, after reports emerged that the executive was missing, reports The Daily Mail.
Guo was later located by his company and was found to have been involved in assisting Mainland judiciary authorities with a number of investigations.
With Zhou's disappearance, speculations are abounding that the billionaire, who is also ranked as China's 62nd richest man, has also been picked up by the authorities as part of Beijing's anti-corruption initiative, according to BBC News.
With very little information available, and with both the executive and Tu Ke, the board secretary, unaccounted for, it is very difficult to make any solid assumptions.
Zhou built his massive apparel empire from scratch. Starting as a humble tailor born to a family of farmers in a small village in Lishui City in east China, he eventually founded Metersbonwe, a highly successful clothing company that started trading on the Chinese stock market in 2009. Metersbonwe currently has more than 4,500 franchises across China.
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