Chinese billionaire Jack Ma has not been seen for more than two months after publicly attacking Beijing’s financial authorities – even skipping his own reality show, according to reports.
The founder of Alibaba was criticized in October for a speech in which he attacked China’s financial regulatory system for stifling innovation, calling for the reform of what he called a “seniors club,” noted the Telegraph.
Within days, Chinese regulators halted the $ 37 billion equity debut of Alibaba’s financial affiliate, Ant Group, and launched an anti-monopoly investigation of Ma’s e-commerce giant, known as “China’s Amazon”.
Ma has not been seen in public since his controversial speech, The Telegraph said, and his last tweet was early in October.
Speculation began to revolve around his whereabouts when he failed to appear as a judge at the end of an apprentice-style TV show he created, “African Business Heroes,” noted the UK’s Financial Times (FT).
One of his last tweets was about the show, with Ma talking about the finalists, “I can’t wait to meet you!”
In addition to being replaced in the final, Ma’s photograph was removed from the trial page, and he was left out of a promotional video, FT said of the final filmed in November, but has not yet been fully broadcast.
An Alibaba spokesman blamed an “agenda conflict” for missing the final of his own show, which he tweeted with enthusiasm, FT said.
“We have nothing to add to that,” a spokesman told Business Insider.
Before the scandal, Ma was the richest man in China and was worth more than $ 60 billion, Business Insider said.
Since then, his net worth has fallen by $ 12 billion in the past two months, while regulators have focused on his business, and he is now the fourth richest person in China, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.