Maike Metals founder He Jinbi sentenced to life imprisonment for fraud

Life sentence for the founder of Maike Metals

He Jinbi, founder of the Chinese trading company Maike Metals International, has been sentenced to life imprisonment in a fraud case and other crimes. The report was published by Kun.uz citing Bloomberg. According to the agency's sources, a court in the city of Xi'an found the head of Maike guilty in September of contractual fraud, bribery and other crimes and handed down the sentence.

Damage to banks and the defense's position

As Bloomberg sources note, the court found that the company's actions created a risk of damage exceeding $1 billion for several Chinese banks. The court's decision itself was not made public. The 61-year-old businessman filed an appeal against the verdict. During the trial, the defense insisted that neither the businessman nor his company had any intent to commit fraud. According to Bloomberg, the lawyers argued that Maike had cooperated with banks for more than a decade and, after its cash flows deteriorated due to pandemic restrictions, continued to meet its obligations by regularly repaying loans. According to the defense, the banks' losses were at least partly linked to flaws in the creditors' own internal risk-management systems.

The company's history and its collapse

He Jinbi founded Maike in 1993 in Xi'an together with friends, taking out a loan of 50,000 yuan — about $8,700 at the exchange rate of the time. The company began by trading mechanical and electrical products and later moved into trading scrap metal, copper rod and refined copper. According to Bloomberg, at its peak the company accounted for a quarter of China's copper imports. Maike raised loans using as collateral the metal it itself supplied and stored in warehouses, and also invested in hotels and business centers. In 2022, pandemic restrictions disrupted the company's operations, the crisis in China's real estate market hit its investments, and falling copper prices worsened its financial difficulties. In October 2023, Maike's executives reportedly lost contact with the founder, and reports emerged of his detention by police. The following month, the company filed for bankruptcy.

Why it matters

The Maike case affects the interests of several Chinese banks which, according to the court's assessment, faced potential damage of more than $1 billion — meaning the consequences concern the credit system that financed metals trading. For commodity market participants, the verdict shows how one of the largest corporate collapses in Chinese copper trading ended. In practical terms, the decision remains not final: the verdict has not been made public, and He Jinbi has appealed it, so the final outcome of the case is unknown.