Media Reports Hu Jintao’s Top Aide Amassed Staggering Amounts of Wealth

Chinese investigators hauled away six-truck loads of gold, calligraphy works, and antiques from a secret stash. The valuables, worth 83.7 billion yuan (about $13.4 billion), was just one portion of the illegitimate wealth that Ling Jihua accumulated. Ling was a top aide to Hu Jintao, when Hu headed the Chinese Communist Party.

Ling Jihua at a meeting of the National Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing on March 8, 2013. Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

Chinese investigators hauled away six-truck loads of gold, calligraphy works, and antiques from a secret stash. The valuables, worth 83.7 billion yuan (about $13.4 billion), was just one portion of the illegitimate wealth that Ling Jihua accumulated. Ling was a top aide to Hu Jintao, when Hu headed the Chinese Communist Party.

Ling Jihua’s brother, Ling Wancheng, had revealed the stash to authorities for undisclosed reasons, the Chinese language news website, Boxun reported on Dec. 8, 2014. Ling Wancheng knew the location, as he was the go-to guy for people wanting to bribe Ling Jihua for obtaining official positions, Boxun reported.

The stash, worth about $13.4 billion, is just one portion of the illegitimate wealth that Ling Jihua accumulated.