Huang Guangyu is the wealthiest person in the country, having built up a fortune of $6.3bn (€5bn, ￡4.1bn) from the Gome electronics retail chain he founded. Yet for the past week he has been missing. Gome suspended its shares on Monday as rumours of Mr Huang's arrest swirled around the capital and company officials could not explain his whereabouts. Only late on Friday evening did the authorities give the first details about the case – a two-line statement saying Mr Huang was suspected of manipulating the share price of two small companies with links to Gome.

The mystery of his disappearance does not reflect well on the rule of law in a country that has promoted market reforms for 30 years but where political connections and personal feuds still often trump legal due process. It has also exposed the complex attitude to wealth and business in modern China where the new rich are lionised for their dynamism but are also considered suspect at a time when social inequality is widening.

In a country where tales of overnight fortunes abound, Mr Huang's story is one of the most remarkable. Born in a small rice-farming village near Shantou on the south-east coast, his family was so poor that even the other village kids would tease him. He was buoyed by stories from his Catholic parents about the Bible and about ancestors who had been traders throughout Asia.