Xu Ming, one of the richest people in China, was taken into custody on March 15, said the ENN Weekly, a magazine backed by the official Xinhua news agency, in a report posted on its website.
Xu, whose company Shide Group sponsors a Chinese football club, was detained by a powerful body which investigates corruption within the ranks of the ruling Communist party, the magazine said in a report dated Saturday.
The report, which could not be independently confirmed, gave no details about the allegations against Xu, or his links to Bo, who was ousted as party leader of the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing also on March 15.
Xu was based in China’s northeast city of Dalian, where Bo served as mayor and Communist party chief over a decade ago before rising up the ranks.
Hong Kong newspapers have reported that the two men were friends, and that Xu helped fund the education of Bo’s son Bo Guagua, who attended Oxford University and the elite British school Harrow.