Released airline tycoon in battle to win back lost assets

A former airline tycoon who was jailed for nearly four years for tax evasion is now back in the limelight with more controversy.

Lan Shili, once ranked China's 70th richest man by magazine, is waging a legal battle against a giant capital investment group, which he accuses of colluding with a former official to defraud his properties in Wuhan, Hubei.

"This is how an innocent private business owner is treated," Lan, 54, a Wuhan native, told the yesterday after a scheduled court hearing was postponed.

Lan's press conference yesterday - during which he had planned to challenge Rongzhong Capital Investment with new evidence - was twice interrupted, first by a change of venue then by a power failure.

Lan, who had worked in the governments of Hubei and Hainan provinces, started a travel company in 1993 and later expanded into real estate. In 2005, he founded the now-defunct East Star Airlines. That year, estimated his net worth at about two billion yuan, making him China's 70th richest man.

In 2010, he was sentenced to four years' jail by the Wuhan Intermediate People's Court for evading some 50 million yuan (HK$63.5 million) in taxes.

He was released half a year ago and has since been overseeing the lawsuit that his East Star Group, the airlines' parent company, filed against Rongzhong Capital Investment.