The investment banker who quit as JPMorgan’s head of China at the height of a US investigation that uncovered “systematic bribery” in the bank’s programme to recruit the children of Chinese officials has invested in the fast-growing aircraft-leasing industry.
Fang Fang, a well-connected Communist party member who presented himself as a bridge to Wall Street, left JPMorgan in 2014 after 12 years at the bank and then set up a private equity firm called Waterwood. It manages a fund that is the largest investor in Asia Pacific Aviation Leasing, a Hong Kong-based company that started operations last year, according to an investor briefing seen by the Financial Times.
Mr Fang, a member of top Communist advisory bodies including the All-China Youth Federation and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, was interviewed by anti-fraud investigators in Hong Kong in 2014 but never charged with any wrongdoing. In 2011, he told the FT that his position in the CPPCC “opens doors to the country’s top leaders”. But he has maintained a low profile since leaving JPMorgan.