Alexandra StevensonGeverifieerd account

Chapter 1: Lavish elite w/ gifts. Jiang Zemin, president at the time, was gifted a Bang & Olufsen sound system. Wen Jiabao, the premier, got a crystal horse. China’s vice president, Wang Qishan, also accepted gifts as mayor of Beijing.(Later he ran Xi’s anti-corruption campaign.)

Chapter 3: Hire the kids of political elite. One applicant “couldn’t meet our standards,” while another was deemed “probably one of the worst candidates.” But these and dozens of other offspring of China’s political elite were hired at the bank

“It’s a relationship country,” said Joseph Ackermann, former Deutsche Bank CEO, in an interview. “Of course we cultivated these people.” About the gifts he added: “They said that’s what Goldman and JPMorgan are doing, so we should do it.”

Some executives were alarmed at the bank’s activities. One warned lawyers that he was “scared” of how a Chinese colleague “was doing business and whether there was money being passed around in envelopes.”