THE Commercial Crime Bureau yesterday arrested four men in connection with a suspected fraud involving $23 million at kitchen materials supplier GKC Holdings, in which Citic Beijing holds a significant stake through wholly owned subsidiary Shortridge.
Sources said two of the arrested men were former directors of the company, Eugene Tang Yiu-chuen and brother Eric Tang Yiu-hong. The other two were surnamed Chan and Keung, they said.
All four men, aged between 36 and 50, were released on police bail.
Sources said there were grounds to believe the $23 million represented the tip of a larger iceberg and that the amount involved could be as high as $200 million.
The arrests came a fortnight after the bureau carried out a raid on GKC's offices following a complaint from Shortridge.
This sparked seven bank creditors and one finance company to recall $170 million in loans between them as of July 30, bringing the company into 'serious cash-flow problems'.
