Background
Eysayup was born in 1958 into a family of ethnic Uygur Muslims in Xinjiang, Northwestern China.
艾克拉木 艾沙由夫
Eysayup was born in 1958 into a family of ethnic Uygur Muslims in Xinjiang, Northwestern China.
Eysayup Ekrem was educted locally.
In the late 1970s, he served a stint as an army paratrooper and in 1980 he began work at the People’s Bank of China in a local branch in the city of Ili. A year later he enrolled at Xinjiang College of Finance and Economics. After graduating in 1983 Eysayup returned to the People’s Bank of China, where he became the director of the Finance Administration Division and then director of the Bank Administration Division.
After more than a decade in the public sector, Eysayup left his position and in July 1996 he purchased a 70 percent stake in Xinjiang Hengyu Development Co. Ltd for 7 million yuan. His first major transaction was the purchase of 1.82 million shares, at a cost of 2 million yuan, in Xinjiang Hops, a state-owned company and one of the premier brand names in a province famous for its beers. Eysayup was appointed deputy chairman of Xinjiang Hops and was at this time the seventh largest shareholder. A year later he orchestrated the listing of 30 million shares of Xinjiang Hops at 4.05 yuan on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Xinjiang Hops would become the country’s biggest hop supplier and the largest hops beer company at a time when China emerged as the world’s second biggest beer producer with the world’s third largest hops industry.
Eysayup soon branched into real estate, acquiring the Yinhe Plaza, a government-owned property that had yet to be completed, in Urumqi in 1997 for 28 million yuan. Eysayup later sold this for more than double the cost of his investment. He also purchased a controlling interest in the Yinsheng Real Estate Group and in 1999 merged his assets into Xinjiang Hengyuan Investment, which was the largest shareholder in Xinjiang Hops. He went on to purchase several more valuable properties and expanded his holdings into juices and bioengineering. In 2002 Xinjiang Hops merged with the Xinjiang Beer Group, producing 150 000 tons of beer a month. The company’s stock reflected Xinjiang Hops’ good fortunes and during a 12-month period from 2002–03 its shares surged more than 20 percent at a time when the markets experienced heavy losses. At the same time Eysayup’s personal fortune soared and in 2003 Asia Money named him the twenty-second wealthiest individual in China with assets totaling $351 million. While Eysayup’s personal savvy played a part in the increased fortunes of Xinjiang Hops, behind the scenes manipulation of share prices and undisclosed debts also fueled the rise. Unbeknownst to investors Eysayup had made 27 credit guarantees with other compa- nies. Worth nearly a billion yuan, he used this money to drive up the price of Xinjiang Hops shares to unsustainable highs and to enrich himself. By the fall of 2003 Eysayup’s financial maneuverings had reached a tipping point, but he had planned carefully.
In September 2003 Eysayup sold his Shanghai villa at nearly half the price he paid for it, emptied his bank accounts, paid the rent on his company office, and fled abroad. Executives at Xinjiang Hops later discovered that their CEO had not only disappeared, but he had had left them with 1.94 billion yuan in liabilities, against 600 million in assets, and 1.44 billion in debt guarantees. Eysayup’s disappearance created an international media buzz. Years earlier his family had moved to the USA and speculation was rife that he was in hiding in the United States, Canada or the Middle East. There were even rumors reported in the press that he had left the country because of ties to Uygur nationalists, who were seeking independence for Xinjiang. Local government officials, hoping to limit economic and political fallout, at first whitewashed Eysayup’s disappearance, referring to it as a ‘personal matter’ unrelated to his business operations, only later to condemn the fallen executive. For Xinjiang Hops Eysayup’s departure resulted in economic disaster. The company’s stock price plummeted 65 percent in two weeks, or 4 billion yuan, and trading in shares was halted. Local and national officials froze the assets of Eysayup and Xinjiang Hops and production was stopped. The company was then purchased for a fraction of its pre-scandal price by Xinjiang Bluesword Brewing Investment Co. and Danish brewers Carlsberg.