(Bloomberg) -- A couple accused in China of leading a fraud worth 262.5 billion yuan ($37.7 billion) are facing a British investigation into how they built up a multi-million pound property portfolio in the UK, according to a court ruling.
The UK’s National Crime Agency is scrutinizing whether the collection of student rental properties acquired by Wenjun Tian and his wife were bought using money from criminal activities, the ruling showed. They’re suspected in China of bagging some £1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) stemming from a 14 year fraud that used a string of shell companies to apply for fraudulent loans as well as stock market manipulation.
A London court on Friday rejected their appeal against an order to disclose details about their assets. They will be allowed to keep their UK real estate assets worth over £14 million if they are later proved to be legitimately purchased, the ruling said.
In total, Chinese authorities said some 1,010 loans were taken out by 59 shell companies under the control of Tian.
Lawyers for the couple declined to comment. The NCA gave a “one-sided, partisan and misleading account of the evidence,” they said during the hearing.
The NCA’s investigation was based on information from Chinese authorities who acted out of political motivation as part of its “transnational repression” of citizens, the lawyers argued. The court did not find evidence of the couple having a political profile as government officials or as political dissidents in China.
Tian and his wife moved to the UK using the now-scrapped investor visa program, helped by a controversial wealth management firm Dolfin Financial UK Ltd.
Dolfin, which invested over £10 million on their behalf in 2017, is now under special administration. The Financial Conduct Authority is investigating Dolfin for an alleged scheme to help clients unlawfully obtain investor visas. The administrators of Dolfin and its founders didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The money was a gift by Tian that came from selling his shares in a Chinese company Dongsheng International Investment Group Co. in October 2015, according to Dolfin’s records cited by the court. Tian moved to the UK in 2019, a year after his wife
The Chinese authorities issued arrest warrants against them in 2021 while the UK investigation began in 2022. The NCA declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.
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