The Times - UK (2022-06-11)

the times | Saturday June 11 2022 2GM 5

News

Cambridge University accepted a
donation worth hundreds of thousands
of pounds from an investor considered
to be one of China’s most wanted men.
Jesus College bestowed membership
of an elite group of benefactors on
Jianxiang Shi, who is now awaiting trial
in the United States for separate
charges of visa fraud.
Shi, who has been photographed
with Donald Trump, Mike Tyson and
Arnold Schwarzenegger, fled China in
2016 after allegations of fraud involving
billions of dollars that vanished.
A red Interpol notice was issued after
it was claimed that he had booked out
entire cinemas to artificially boost
earnings for one of his films.
Despite the allegations, the college’s
annual report listed him as a St Rade-
gund Fellow from 2016 to 2019.
Shi is awaiting trial in Nevada after
being arrested at a cryptocurrency con-
ference in Las Vegas last year.
Jesus College, which has suffered a
string of controversies related to China
in recent years, refused to be drawn on
whether it had returned his money or to
state how much Shi had donated.
The college, which was raising funds
for a building in 2015, gave him a tour
of the halls and made him a St Rade-
gund Fellow, which is an honour be-
stowed to “mark acts of outstanding
generosity”.
Shi, who attended Shanghai Party
School in 1992, rose to prominence in
the late 1990s after acquiring four
failing state-run companies. In 2014 he

failures of the shameless college man-

agement and its incompetent leader-

ship by gaslighting students and dis-

missing their legitimate concerns”.

Another student said: “Many stu-

dents, myself included, have had their

faith in the college’s commitment to

fairness and ethical conduct shattered.”

Among other complaints, students

say their requests for reassurance about

the presence of officials from the

Chinese embassy at events organised

by the centre have been ignored.

Students are also concerned about

apparent attempts to undermine

events organised by students on ethnic

cleansing in the province of Xinjiang.

The Wall Street Journal reported that

Shi fled to America and lived under the

name Morgan Shi in a $3 million house

outside Los Angeles. He had a mobile

home and travelled the country in

charter jets. There were claims that Shi

Jianxiang Shi was

given a tour of

Jesus College and

an award before

posing for photos

with Arnold

Schwarzenegger

and Mike Tyson

had done

business

through

dummy cor-

porations and

secured deals

with money held

offshore in Caribbean

jurisdictions, the paper said. Records

showed he controlled a publicly traded

Hollywood production company,

Moregain Pictures, as well as more

than 20 business entities, often with

Americans in executive positions.

In 2017 Interpol issued a global

wanted persons notice against Shi at

the request of Beijing, which accused

him of the “crime of illegal fundraising

by fraudulent means”. The following

year China listed him as one of its 50

most-wanted financial crime fugitives,

A brochure promoting Moregain

Capital Group, Shi’s primary US busi-

ness vehicle for investments, has fea-

tured a photo with Trump, in which Shi

wears a fedora and the former presi-

dent gives a thumbs-up salute.

Two days after the picture was taken

at a December 2017 political fundraiser

in New York, official filings show Shi’s

US accountant donated $50,000 to

Trump Victory Committee, the polit-

ical-action organisation.

In the US Shi has launched

cryptocurrencies, and tried to

sell a virtual coin called

Tyson Token, that the box-

er quickly disavowed.

Last September, the

Securities and Exchange

Commission cancelled all

securities related to More-

gain after it failed to issue

financial reports since 2019,

around the time Shi became

involved.

The Justice Department said

that Shi was arrested at a Las Vegas

convention where he was promoting a

cryptocurrency venture.

A college spokeswoman said: “Mr Shi

was offered a St Radegund Fellowship

in 2015. The college had no subsequent

contact with him and he was never in-

ducted, therefore he was removed from

documentation in 2018. His only visit to

the college and subsequent donation

was in 2015. Had any allegations been

known then, he clearly wouldn’t have

been offered a fellowship.

“All significant donations go through

the college and the university due dili-

gence processes, which are regularly

reviewed and updated.”

r-

and

deals

ey held

Caribbean

s the paper saidRecords

Trump Victor

ical-action

In th

crypt

sell

Ty

er

S

C

se

ga

fin

arou

iinvolv

The J

tthat Shi wa

convention wh

cryptocurrenc

Chinese donor

in fraud inquiry

made a fellow

at Cambridge

transformed a Shanghai wire maker

into a financial company that backed a

film starring Mike Tyson, the former

heavyweight boxing champion.

In March 2016 Chinese regulators

announced that they were investi-

gating suspected irregularities in the

film’s box office returns. By April Shi

had fled.

Accounts filed that August by Jesus

College named Shi as one of its St Rade-

gund Fellows. Ian White, the college’s

former master, was photographed giv-

ing him a certificate in 2015 which said

it was: “In recognition of his great gen-

erosity to the College.”

Shi posted a video of himself, a black

coat draped over his shoulders, being

given a tour of the college.

He spoke in Mandarin at the Cam-

bridge Celebrity Forum, saying: “We

have to do what people didn’t think of,

we have to accomplish what others

can’t accomplish and we have to obtain

what others can’t obtain. That is what

successful entrepreneurs should do.”

News of the donation comes after the

college announced that it would re-

name its China Centre and pledged to

be more transparent about its funding

after The Times revealed that its direct-

or had trained Communist Party

figures to become better leaders.

Students, however, believe that the

reforms don’t go far enough, and ques-

tions remain unanswered about the

college’s relationship with the Chinese

state. One science postgraduate stu-

dent said a formal review of the China

Centre published by the college was “a

whitewash designed to cover up the

Ben Ellery, Sam Dunning

ALAMY

Sheryl Sandberg, the former chief oper-
ating officer of Facebook, is being
investigated by lawyers over her use of
company resources for personal pro-
jects dating back years.
Sandberg, 52, who joined the social
media company that is now called Meta
Platforms in 2008, resigned last week.
Last night The Wall Street Journal,
which had previously reported that the
investigation included a review of
Sandberg’s use of corporate resources

Sheryl Sandberg was

“annoyed” by the inquiry

Meta staff questioned over work on Sandberg personal projects

to help to plan her forthcoming wed-

ding, said that employees had been

interviewed as part of a Meta in-

quiry that began in the autumn.

A spokesman for Sandberg said

last week: “Sheryl did not

inappropriately use company

resources in connection with

the planning of her wed-

ding.”

The inquiry is said to be

examining the work that

Facebook employees did to

support Sandberg’s founda-

tion, Lean In, which advocates for

women in the workplace, as well as

the writing and promotion of her

book Option B, which focused on

her grieving after her husband

Dave Goldberg, died in 2015.

Meta, based in Menlo Park,

California, was founded by

Mark Zuckerberg, 38, in 2004

and has nearly 78,000 staff. It

owns Facebook, Instagram,

and the messaging services WhatsApp

and Messenger. The company went

public in New York in 2012 and has a

market value of about $438 billion.

Sandberg led its transformation from

the scrappy start-up founded in Zuck-

erberg’s Harvard dormitory room to a

technology powerhouse. Today it is the

second biggest force in digital advertis-

ing, behind only Google, her previous

employer.

People close to Sandberg said that

although the review had annoyed her

in recent months, it had played

no role in her decision to leave the

company.

Sandberg told friends and colleagues

that she decided to step down because

she was burnt out and weary of being a

“punching bag” for Meta’s critics. She

also sees Zuckerberg’s pivot to the

so-called metaverse as a multi-year

project that she was not eager to take

on, not least because it does not directly

entail the use of her core strengths in

building advertising businesses.

Meta did not respond to a request for

comment.

Robert Miller