As recently as a few months ago, Wu Xiaohui was still receiving visitors late into the night in the Royal Suite at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, once the New York residence of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, where he would offer them fine Chinese and Japanese teas and silver platters laden with fruit.
Mr Wu’s insurance conglomerate Anbang acquired the hotel from Blackstone in 2014 in one of the most high-profile international deals involving a Chinese company.
Three years later, the hotel is closed for renovations and the Chinese tycoon’s fortunes have changed dramatically: he has been detained by corruption investigators in Beijing, according to people familiar with the investigation.