Billionaire R&F co-founder Zhang Li to fight US extradition from luxury flat once touted as a London showcase
- Zhang, co-founder of Guangzhou R&F Properties, is fighting extradition to the US to face bribery charges from a high-end flat at Thames City development
- R&F agreed to sell its interest in the southwest London project to its joint venture partner CC Land in April
Billionaire property developer Zhang Li will be staying in a luxury flat under tight security in a development that was once one of his company’s showcase projects in London as he fights extradition to the United States.
On Monday, a magistrate judge in London granted bail of £15 million (US$18.4 million) and ordered that Zhang, a former government official in China before he entered business, be confined 24 hours a day to a 43rd-floor flat near the US embassy in the Nine Elms area while he challenges the extradition request.
The flat is in the Thames City development, a luxury residential and retail complex that R&F co-developed with Hong Kong-listed CC Land on old industrial sites in southwest London.
The project consists of 12 buildings featuring more than 1,400 homes, shops and restaurants, with the first phase expected to be completed next year. It is just steps from the new US embassy and about a 25-minute walk from the renovated Battersea Power Station, which reopened to the public as a shopping and dining destination in October.