Beijing Takes Over Anbang, Insurer That Owns Waldorf Astoria<br />BEIJING — The Chinese government said on Friday that it had seized control of Anbang Insurance Group, the troubled Chinese company<br />that owns the Waldorf Astoria hotel and other marquee properties around the world, and it had charged the company’s former chairman with economic crimes.<br />“The takeover management team will take effective measures to keep the company operating as usual,” the insurance regulator said, adding<br />that it would protect consumers and “the legitimate rights and interest of all stakeholders.”<br />The regulator said that the takeover could extend a second year if the company failed to complete an equity restructuring and resume operations.<br />China’s insurance regulator said in a notice dated Friday<br />that Anbang would be overseen for a year by a group that included China’s central bank, its securities and banking regulators, the country’s foreign exchange regulator and other government agencies.<br />The Shanghai Procuratorate, which handles prosecutions in the city, announced in a statement on Friday morning<br />that Mr. Wu, Anbang’s former chairman, had been indicted in the city’s First Intermediate People’s Court for fraudulent fund-raising and for improperly taking company assets.<br />A New York Times investigation two years ago found<br />that many of those owners were family or acquaintances of Mr. Wu, often hailing from his home region, in China’s Zhejiang province.<br />Though the companies are privately owned, their leaders often benefited from their political connections,<br />and they were often backed by cheap debt provided by China’s state-run banks.
