Former hedge fund manager Xu Xiang pleaded guilty to charges of market manipulation in one of the most high-profile cases to follow last year’s stock market collapse in China. Xu, known as “hedge fund brother No. 1” for his winning bets in the stock market, was charged with colluding to manipulate share prices in an operation that began in 2009 and ran through 2015, a court in the eastern city of Qingdao said on its official Weibo account. Two other defendants -- fund manager Wang Wei and Zhu Yong -- also pleaded guilty, the statement said.