THE mystery disappearance of more than 2,000 live lobsters from Kai Tak airport has sparked an international investigation spanning three countries.
The lobsters are believed to have been at the centre of an organised seafood scam operated by mainland conmen taking advantage of foreign buyers keen to expand into southern China.
The Australian seafood exporter who sent the lobsters to Hong Kong said he was on the brink of ruin because of the loss suffered in the deal, the first he had ever made directly with China.
Managing director of Poseidon Seafoods in Adelaide, Theodoros Gounas, said yesterday he was drafting a letter to Governor Chris Patten appealing for assistance in recovering about A$100,000 (about HK$555,000) he was owed.
He is also concerned that many others doing business in southern China through Hong Kong could fall victim to similar elaborate cons.
A Victorian seafood exporter lost more than A$48,000 after being targeted in the same scam.
Mr Gounas sent the three containers of lobsters to Hong Kong late last year after a Guangdong trading company faxed an order for the lobsters the day after he had made inquiries about such deals through the Chinese Embassy in Sydney.