Shanghai tycoon and wife linked to bank scam in HK

One China's richest tycoons and his wife reportedly are at the center of a murky scandal involving alleged bribery and loan fraud in Hong Kong and China.

The whereabouts of Shanghai businessman Chau Ching-ngai are unknown, but some media have reported he was arrested in China as authorities try to unravel a reported bank scam involving loans worth some HK$2 billion (US$256 million).

Shanghai spokeswoman Jiao Yang said only that a company Chau runs in that city, the Nongkai Development Group, was being investigated. She refused to say whether Chau had been detained.

Meanwhile, Chau's wife, Mo Yuk-ping, was arrested and interrogated in Hong Kong amid a series of raids by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), according to a person familiar with the case.

The commission confirmed that 21 people were arrested on Sunday and Monday but declined to identify them.

The person who said Mo was arrested spoke on condition of anonymity. Her arrest was widely reported in the Hong Kong media.

Mo as chairwoman of a company controlled by Chau, the Hong Kong-listed Shanghai Merchant Holdings Ltd.

Hong Kong newspapers reported yesterday that Mo had been freed on bail of HK$10 million (US$1.3 million), but official confirmation was not immediately available.

Chau's have been listed at US$320 million by Forbes magazine, which has called him the 11th-richest man in China.