Former China brokerage chief kills himself: Xinhua

Yang Zezhu apparently jumped from a 12-storey residential building in the central city of Wuhan on Tuesday afternoon after leaving a suicide note, Xinhua said on its microblog. Police are still investigating the case.

In early January, Changjiang Securities said in a statement to the Shenzhen stock exchange that Yang was under investigation by the Communist Party corruption watchdog for suspected violations of discipline, a phrase that typically refers to graft.

Yang stepped down soon afterwards as both chairman and party chief of the securities firm, a mid-sized brokerage that was ranked 17th by assets nationwide in 2014.

He previously headed a Hubei provincial government agency that oversaw state assets.

China has recently targeted the financial sector as part of a larger crackdown on corruption spearheaded by President Xi Jinping.

In October, China’s corruption watchdog said it would expand its inspections to major financial institutions, which are already under pressure after a stock market rout last year.