Hong Kong police check CCTV footage for clues on missing tycoon

Hong Kong police are checking roadside surveillance footage around the city to try to trace the movements of missing mainland billionaire Xiao Jianhua as they investigate his disappearance from the luxury hotel where he was staying on Lunar New Year’s Eve, the Post has learned.

The Canadian consulate in Hong Kong, meanwhile, confirmed that Xiao was a Canadian citizen.

More details of the tycoon’s disappearance emerged on Thursday as a senior government source with knowledge of the case told the Post that the founder of Beijing-based Tomorrow Group left the Four Seasons Hotel in Central “smoothly” with two female bodyguards and six other unidentified people in plain clothes at around 3am last Friday.

The group was picked up by two cars, driven by two men, at the main entrance. It was 3pm when Xiao crossed the border into Shenzhen in a vehicle at Lok Ma Chau.

“Police are investigating where Xiao went and with whom he met during the 12-hour gap,” the source said. “Officers are trying to get as much CCTV footage as possible, from private buildings and the government, so as to join the dots and map out his routes before he left the city.”

The source did not disclose the model of the cars that picked up Xiao and the others at the hotel, or whether Xiao left for Shenzhen in the same vehicle that picked him up.

One woman was left behind at the Four Seasons Hotel, as Xiao checked in with three women but was last seen leaving the building with two, the source said.