Alibaba’s fintech affiliate Ant Group is allegedly connected to a corruption scandal involving the former party secretary of Hangzhou, according to local media reports. State broadcaster CCTV aired a documentary on Wednesday featuring claims that a number of private companies received help from Hangzhou’s former party secretary Zhou Jiangyong to acquire cheap land before he was arrested in August for corruption. Although CCTV didn’t name Hangzhou headquartered Ant Group specifically, public records show that an Ant Group affiliate bought two land plots at discounted rates in the city in 2019 after taking stakes in two mobile payment businesses owned by the younger brother of the party secretary. [Nikkei Asia]