Chinese mining tycoon Liu Han has been executed after being sentenced to death in May 2014 for “leading mafia-style crime and murder”, state media say.

Liu Han’s younger brother, Liu Wei and three other associates were also executed, Xinhua said, after China’s top court signed off on the move.

The former chairman of Hanlong Group is believed to have had links to former security tsar Zhou Yongkang, who is currently being investigated.

The Hanlong Group is a major private conglomerate based in Sichuan province, involved in multiple industries including mining, telecommunications and chemicals.

As head of the company, Liu Han was both rich and very influential.

Xinhua said the company, which had been “harbored and indulged by government officials, had illegally monopolized the gaming business in Guanghan City in Sichuan province, tyrannized local people and seriously harmed the local economic and social order”.

In recent months, several top officials from Sichuan province have come under scrutiny.

Sichuan was a power base of Zhou Yongkang, China’s former domestic security chief who is now the subject of a corruption probe.

Zhou Yongkang was the party secretary in Sichuan before becoming head of China’s public security ministry in 2003.

He was arrested in December 2014, the latest and by far the most senior figure to be handed over to prosecutors as part of President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption.

Official reports do not specifically link Liu Han’s case with Zhou Yongkang.

Liu Han was an associate of Zhou Bin, Zhou Yongkang’s son, the South China Morning Post reported.

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