Following reports that billionaire Jack Ma is missing, a video predicting he will eventually end up killed or put in jail is being reshared on social media.
Ma, the founder of Alibaba and Ant Group, has reportedly not been seen in public in two months, including not appearing as a judge in the final of his own TV show, Africa's Business Heroes.
Ma, the former richest person in China and currently ranked 25 in Bloomberg's Billionaires Index with an estimated net worth of more than $50bn, was due to appear in the November season finale of the entrepreneurial television contest, but was replaced by Lucy Peng, an executive at Alibaba—China's biggest e-commerce company.
According to the Financial Times, Ma's absence from the show was "due to a schedule conflict." One contestant who made the final after previously being judged by Ma earlier in the season added: "There was something going on in China with Jack Ma or something, so [Peng] also came in as well."
There has been speculation that Ma's apparent disappearance is related to a speech he gave in Shanghai in October criticizing China's banking rules and calling for change.
"Today's financial system is the legacy of the Industrial Age," Ma said. "We must set up a new one for the next generation and young people. We must reform the current system."
Following reports of Ma's disappearance from the public eye, a video from a September 2019 interview has been reshared hundreds of times on Twitter as people speculate as to what has happened to him.
This aged well... https://t.co/qSbWMZuUWJ
— Steve Saretsky (@SteveSaretsky) January 4, 2021
In the clip, Guo Wengui, who fled China as a fugitive in 2014 and claims to have revealed details of alleged corruption in the country, told Real Vision that there are "only two ways" that Ma's future could pan out after he left Alibaba in September 2019.
"All of China's billionaires, only two ways: jail, and die."
Interviewer Kyle Bass then reiterates: "So he's either going to jail, or he's going to be killed."
Wengui then notes how Ma's involvement in private company Ant Financial causes a "big problem" for China as it challenges the country's banking system and China wants to "take back" the company now known as Ant Group, an affiliate of Ma's Alibaba Group.
"Where is #JackMa? This is from just over a year ago...," tweeted businessman and investor Jason Calacanis while sharing the clip.
"This guy predicted Jack Ma will be jailed or killed by CPC. A lil over a year later Ma is missing for 2 months," added Henry Mascot, founder of insurance company Curacel.
In December, China regulators launched an anti-monopoly investigation into Alibaba after it previously introduced stricter financial regulations that prevented Ant Group from launching what would have been the world's biggest initial public offering soon after Ma's Shanghai speech.
Ma himself has not tweeted since October 10, where he posted about his collaboration with the Duke of Cambridge and other global investors as part of The Earthshot Prize project.
Ant Group has been contacted about his alleged disappearance from public life.
