Li Huabo spirited HK$3 bln into Macau

By
Joao Santos Filipe

The second most wanted Chinese fugitive, Li Huabo, brought HK$3 billion to Macau in order to gamble and lost HK$34 million, the Chinese newspaper Beijing Evening News has reported. Mainland Chinese authorities in co-operation with Macau prosecutors obtained the gambling records of Mr. Li where this information was disclosed.
The records show Li had gambled with almost HK$3 billion in Macau and lost about HK$34 million of the sum between April 2008 and January 2011.
Mr. Li was a section director of Poyang County’s finance bureau in Jiangxi Province. After being accused of fraud for allegedly having stolen 98 million yuan (HK$124 million) of public funds he fled with his family to Singapore in January 2011.
Quoting a Supreme Procuratorate, the Mainland Chinese newspaper reported that Li admitted to his guilt by leaving letters for his superior in the finance bureau. “I promise to pay back the money one day if I can,” he reportedly wrote.
He also explained in the letters that the money came from construction funds and that he used a fake official seal to access it. According to the same newspaper, that money was later wired to Macau.
Li Huabo was repatriated to China on Saturday, after serving a 15-month jail term in Singapore. When he fled in January 2011, Chinese authorities began to investigate him and sent requests to Interpol and Singapore for assistance to capture him.
He was first arrested in Singapore in March 2011, and in September 2012 he faced trial for stealing funds. Finally, in August 2013 he was sent to prison in the city state.
Li Huabo was the second most wanted corrupt Chinese official and was repatriated after his wife, Xu Aihong, asked him to move back to the Mainland for the family’s sake.
The most wanted corrupt official is Yang Xiuzhu. According to Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post she is a former Zhejiang official accused of being involved in a corrupt case involving 250 million yuan (HK$312.4 million). She is said to have fled to the United States in 2003.