(Yicai) Aug. 8 -- Liu Haibo, a senior vice president at Dalian Wanda Group has been taken away by police, according to a media report. His detention may be linked to the Chinese commercial property developer’s anti-graft efforts, Yicai learned from people familiar with the matter.

Liu was in charge of Wanda’s investment business. He joined Dalian-based Wanda Commercial Management Group in 2010 and served as assistant to the president, general manager of its development division, SVP, and other senior posts.

His removal was sudden. The last time Liu appeared in public was on Aug. 1, when he attended an event at which Wanda founder and Chairman Wang Jianlin and Zhang Qiang, the mayor of Datong city, held a work meeting.

Wang served in the People’s Liberation Army and has zero tolerance for corruption and fraud. His company is well known in China’s real estate sector for its anti-graft efforts. The group set up an audit division in 2001 and has since investigated and handled a number of internal corruption cases.

In the past two years, Wanda executives have been away for investigation a number of times. In December 2021, Zhu Zhanbei was detained by Shanghai police on suspicion of corruption in bidding for information technology equipment procurement. He was then a VP at Wanda Commercial Management and president at Shanghai Beyond Science, one of its units.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Peter Thomas