Hearings continued yesterday on the detention of a Chinese
banker who disappeared after allegedly siphoning nearly 1 billion
yuan ($128 million) from the accounts of his bank customers,
Canada's National Post reported.
The whereabouts of Gao Shan, 42, had been a mystery until last
Sunday when police and immigration officials arrested him at a
Vancouver home.
The search to find the former head of the Bank of China in
Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, spanned the globe, with
both Canadian and Chinese authorities looking for him in the United
Kingdom, the United States and South Korea.
Chinese authorities recently openly asked Canada for Gao's
extradition, believing Canadian authorities knew where he was.
Statements from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police reveal Gao has
been under police surveillance for at least a year. He is now being
held for allegedly lying about his occupation when he entered
Canada.
His wife, Li Xue, and their 17-year-old daughter were also
arrested for misrepresenting information when entering the
country.
Gao's wife and daughter were released, but all three family
members will have to appear at immigration proceedings on March
6.
Gao, meanwhile, has been held on the grounds that he's a flight
risk.
Bank of China, the country's largest foreign exchange bank,
confirmed in early 2005 that one of its sub-branches in
Heilongjiang was involved in financial fraud.
The scandal emerged on January 15 when Northeast Expressway, a
Shanghai-listed A-share company, announced that 290 million yuan
($37.17 million) of shareholders' funds deposited with the branch
was missing.
Gao, director of a division of the branch, reportedly vanished
following the disappearance of the money.
Deposits by other companies, amounting to as much as 700 million
yuan ($89.74 million), also vanished.
(China Daily February 23, 2007)