[JURIST] A Beijing court on Friday indicted Huang Guangyu, formerly China's richest man [Hurun report], with insider trading, bribery, and illegal business practices. The charges [WSJ report], brought by the Supreme People's Procuratorate [official website, in Chinese] come almost 15 months after Huang was initially placed under detention. His case has been the subject of intense media coverage in China involving allegations of bribery [Xinhua reports] to high-level Shanghai police among others. According to reports, Huang has been under investigation [EO report] by the Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate for more than two years. He was previously the chairman of Pengrun Investments and founder of subsidiary GOME Electrical Appliances [corporate website], both publicly traded on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.

Huang's indictment is part of a wider campaign in China to crack down on corruption, which is seen by many as a threat [CE report] to China's future stability. Last week, the president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) [official website, in Chinese] called for increased efforts [JURIST report] to fight corruption among the judiciary. The president's statement came just two weeks after former SPC vice president Huang Songyou was convicted [JURIST report] on bribery and embezzlement charges. Earlier in January, the Communist Party of China [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] announced [JURIST report] increasing oversight of the families of government officials to control corruption. Leader of the People's Republic, Hu Jintao [official profile], has made it a priority to combat grafting in China [Straits Times report], utilizing the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection [official website; in Chinese] to coordinate anti-corruption efforts among the public security, finance, judiciary, and diplomatic agencies.