Chairman Of Anbang Insurance, Owner Of The Waldorf Astoria, Disappears In China

How the mighty have fallen. The bold billionaire who last year bid on Marriott has stepped down today as chairman of Anbang Insurance and is believed to be under arrest in China.

In a terse statement yesterday, Anbang said Wu Xiaohui was “for personal reasons no longer able to perform his duties” and is being replaced.

Caijing, a respected newsmagazine in China, said Mr. Wu was taken away by authorities on Friday in Beijing.

Wu has spent a decade building Anbang into a global giant, with $294 billion in assets and 30,000 employees. It was the high bidder for Starwood Hotels but was outbid at the last minute by Marriott in what turned out to be the biggest hotel deal of last year, and also unsuccessfully bid on a Manhattan tower owned by the family of Trump advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

But Anbang did succeed in acquiring the Waldorf Astoria.