HONG KONG — A Chinese real estate tycoon has said that relatives of China’s president sold their shares in his company two months before its initial public offering, missing out on a “fortune” in capital gains and, he said, proving there was no corruption involved.

The tycoon, Wang Jianlin, made the comments as a rebuttal to a New York Times investigation, which he was asked about at a Harvard forum on Thursday.

Asked if the political ties reported by The Times were responsible for his company’s rapid growth, he said, “We owe our rapid growth to our core competence of innovative business model and effective management practices.”

He also offered new insight into the share holdings of a sister and brother-in-law of President Xi Jinping.