GUOSEN Securities Co., China’s fifth-largest brokerage by market value, Friday said its president Chen Hongqiao died Friday. He was 49.

    Guosen did not give the cause of Chen’s death, but only said in a brief statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange that the firm was operating as normal and had nothing further to disclose.

    But news portal Tencent, citing unnamed sources within the company and a senior manager of a State-owned bank, said that Chen was found dangling from the balcony of his home.

    Sohu, another news portal, citing an unnamed source, said Chen had previously attempted to leave China but was turned back because he had been put under “border control” — a standard measure imposed on Chinese citizens under investigation.

    Chen joined Shenzhen-based Guosen Securities in June 2014 after he worked at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange for more than a decade. He held various positions at the Shenzhen exchange, including serving as a deputy general manager under Zhang Yujun, then the bourse’s head.

    Chen and Zhang had “close relations” in Shenzhen, Tencent said, citing a securities firm executive in the city. Zhang was sacked as the assistant chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the nation’s securities regulator, Xinhua reported Sept. 22, days after he was announced under investigation for suspected “serious violation of discipline.”

    China has taken unprecedented measures to stem a stock rout that has wiped almost US$4 trillion off the market’s value since mid-June. Among the steps was a suspension of certain trading accounts. In August, U.S.-based hedge fund Citadel LLC said one of its trading accounts managed by Guosen Futures Ltd., a unit of Guosen Securities, has been restricted by the CSRC.

    Sources familiar with the matter said the CSRC was looking at Citadel’s role in causing market volatility, in particular the number of its canceled transactions.

    But in a subsequent statement, Guosen Securities said it had offered trading and financing services to one of its client’s asset management plans. It said the client hadn’t engaged in so-called naked short-selling, a particular target of the regulators’ investigations.

    (Zhang Qian)