Britain returns US$43m corrupt assets to Macau
Print Edition
Britain has returned 28 million pounds (US$43 million) worth of illegal foreign assets to Macau from a former official jailed for bribery, authorities announced yesterday.
The assets belonged to Macau’s ex-transport and public works minister Ao Man-long, who is currently serving 29 years in jail over a multi-million-dollar corruption scandal.
“Today, Ao Man-long’s illegal foreign assets have for the most part been successfully recovered,” Macau’s justice minister Sonia Chan told reporters yesterday.
Ao, who was in office between 1999 and 2006, was first arrested in December 2006 by the Macau Commission Against Corruption.
He amassed a personal fortune of more than US$100 million in his seven years in office — 57 times his family’s income during that time.
“The UK first engaged with the Macau authorities in July 2007 so it’s been the outcome of a very long and complex process,” said Caroline Wilson, Britain’s consul-general for Hong Kong and Macau.
“Cooperation with the government of the UK has resulted in this fantastic achievement of 28 million pounds sterling of the proceeds of corruption (going) back to Macau.”
Ao was convicted in 2008 and 2009 of taking payments from contractors in return for approving either land sales or major construction projects in Macau.
He was also found guilty in 2012 of three counts of money laundering and six counts of bribe-taking.
The 2012 trial heard Ao had received HK$20 million (US$2.6 million) from two Hong Kong tycoons for the acquisition of land to build a HK$20 billion luxury residential project.
The tycoons — Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau and business partner Steven Lo — were found guilty in March last year of bribing Ao in an attempt to purchase the development site.
The pair were sentenced to five years in prison but have never spent any time behind bars because Macau does not have an extradition treaty with Hong Kong.
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