Chinese tycoon denies colluding with disgraced senior spy Ma Jian

A tycoon accused of colluding with the country's disgraced deputy spy chief has denied the allegations and vowed to return to China to clear his name.

Financial news outlets Tencent, Caixin and Caijing last week alleged that Guo Wengui, controlling shareholder of Beijing Zenith Holdings and Beijing Pangu Investment, conspired with government officials - including former deputy spy chief Ma Jian who came under investigation for corruption in January - in his rise to riches.

Speaking to the South China Morning Post on Monday, Guo rejected accusations that he went into hiding overseas from mainland graft-busters after Ma's downfall. Rather, he said, he was in New York to treat a long-term leg injury and would soon return.

Mainland media earlier reported that Guo allegedly plotted the fall of former Beijing vice-mayor Liu Zhihua after Liu refused to help him recover the development rights to the Pangu Plaza project next to the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium in Beijing. The reports also said that Ma or his aide had a role in a 2006 sex-tape scandal that brought down Liu.

But Guo denied the plot, saying Ma had only helped put him in touch with the nation's top anti-graft agency, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, so that Guo could report Liu's wrongdoings, after all the other departments he had approached rejected him.

He said he met Liu - through the arrangement of "one of the top leaders from the Communist Party's Central Committee" - to ask the Beijing vice-mayor to reclaim the rights to his Pangu Plaza project, but that Liu refused to do so. He declined to reveal further details on the matter.

Guo came to know Ma through work-related matters in 2004 when Ma was the deputy chief in charge of security for the Beijing Olympic Games. The pair became friends because of their shared interest in architecture, he said.