Cover Story: The Rise and Fall of China’s ‘Fentanyl King’ in Corruption-Fueled Bankruptcy

Dangdai founder Ai vows rebound as empire leaves investors, creditors underwater

In January, months before a court would approve the bankruptcy restructuring of his company, Ai Luming, 68, gathered his old friends and partners — the same men who helped him turn 2,000 yuan ($279) and a urine collection business into a billion-dollar conglomerate — for a private dinner. He raised a glass and spoke with a broken voice.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “If there’s a chance, I’d like to start over.”

By April 25, the Wuhan Intermediate People’s Court ruled to end Wuhan Dangdai Science & Technology Industries Group Co. Ltd., the sprawling private empire Ai spent 37 years building, approving a plan that handed his core asset, Humanwell Healthcare (Group) Co. Ltd. — China’s undisputed fentanyl king — to state-owned China Merchants Group.

Ai’s rise was legendary. A descendant of a Nationalist general, he drifted alone down the Yangtze River as a student before co-founding Dangdai in 1988. From a ramshackle urea extraction operation, he seized the era’s opening to private enterprise, rolling up distressed drugmakers and listing his flagship firm, Humanwell, by 1997.

At its peak,