NVC chairman accuses top Chinese banks of collusion in founder's alleged embezzlement scheme
Mainland police investigating bank executives after claims they helped steal 573 million yuan from the country's biggest lighting producer
Mainland police are investigating executives of three major Hong Kong-listed banks over allegations they helped Wu Changjiang, the founder of NVC Lighting Holding, embezzle about 573 million yuan (HK$724.8 million) from the company, NVC chairman Wang Donglei told reporters yesterday.
Wu was under criminal investigation and had been barred from leaving the mainland, but his exact whereabouts were unknown, Wang said.
However, Wu's most recent posting on the Weibo microblog on November 8 apparently showed him to be in Bangkok, with two photographs of the Thai capital and a heading in Chinese, "Bangkok, Thailand".
"I haven't been here for a long time. Coming here, I'll take a good rest, relax and recover my morale. The road ahead is still long," Wu said in the posting.
He did not reply to questions sent by the South China Morning Post through Weibo.
NVC's board dismissed Wu as chief executive on August 8 over the missing funds, and he was removed from the board at an extraordinary general meeting on August 29.
NVC is China's largest lighting manufacturer.