Anbang bought the Waldorf Astoria with money it had raised fraudulently

Anbang Insurance Group, a Chinese insurance company, went on a spectacular global acquisition spree between 2014 and 2016, spending over $30 billion. Its most famous purchase was the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York for $1.95 billion, the most expensive hotel sale in history at the time. Anbang also acquired hotels, insurers and banks across Europe, Asia and North America.

But the spree was built on fraud. The court found that Anbang had raised over $10 billion through fraudulent insurance products, using new policyholders' money to pay existing obligations — a structure resembling a Ponzi scheme.

Anbang was taken over by Chinese regulators and eventually restructured as Dajia Insurance Group. The overseas assets were sold off. The case illustrated the danger of opaque financial conglomerates and the risks that global counterparties take when dealing with companies whose funding sources are not transparent.