Lai See | The curious case of the Gu Kailai body double?

The trial of Bo Xilai's wife, Gu Kailai, for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood may be over but its reverberations continue. Doubts have been expressed over the validity of Gu's reported confession and other details of the trial. One of the more surprising twists is a suggestion in the Financial Times that the defendant in television footage of the trial was not Gu but a body double. The newspaper reported: "Two security experts familiar with facial recognition software said the person shown in state television footage of the courtroom was not Ms Gu."

Chinese netizens have also been buzzing over the possible use of a body double at the trial, which is apparently not unheard of in the motherland. Business Insider found a mention of the controversy on Facebook with the message: "Gu Kailai's impostor is a woman around 46 years old from Langfang [a city in Hebei province] named Zhao Tianyun." The words "Gu Kailai" and "body double" have been blocked from the mainland's internet, such is their sensitivity. Clearly the woman shown in the television footage is plumper than earlier pictures of Gu, whereas you might expect a period in jail and the accompanying stress would result in weight loss rather than a gain. There are definitely similarities in the nose and mouth, but who are we to decide on such high-level matters? If Gu wasn't in court, then that raises questions as to her whereabouts and if she's still alive. On the other hand maybe the prison congee was just too good.

We hear that headhunters are circling Standard Chartered, which was wounded recently by New York State regulator Bernard Lawsky's assertions that it was a "rogue bank" and laundered Iran's oil money. The bank rejects the charges, though it has paid a whopping US$340 million to settle the issue.

The story the headhunters are peddling is that this is just the beginning of the story. The bank is being investigated by other regulatory agencies in the US and it may end up having to pay out in excess of US$1 billion.