By Chen Yang

A man who allegedly helped defraud the Bank of China (BOC) of 290 million yuan ($40 million) in a 2002 case with links to an even larger series of frauds totaling 1 billion yuan is in custody after being detained Monday at the Beijing Capital Airport.

Four years after fleeing China for his alleged role in the scheme that targeted a BOC sub-branch in Heilongjiang Province, the suspect, Jiang Guozai, was arrested Monday at the airport's Beijing General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection after arriving on a flight from the Republic of Korea (ROK), according to a report published Wednesday on caijing.com.cn.

Zhao Guangyan, an official with the inspection office's publicity department, declined to disclose yesterday to the Global Times why Jiang had risked returning to China, where he has been wanted since the fraud case came to light in 2005. Zhao said Jiang had been remanded to the custody of the Heilongjiang Provincial Public Security Department, and the case remained under investigation.

The massive fraud case involved more than 20 suspects and took three years to come to light. It wasn't discovered until the Northeast Expressway Company reported to local police in 2005 that its 290 million yuan deposit to the Hesongjie sub-branch in Harbin of the BOC had vanished.

The company revealed the fraud publicly in an announcement made January 15, 2005, just two days after the company's board chairman, Zhang Xiaoguang, was arrested for misappropriation of public funds. He was found guilty of taking bribes, corruption, embezzlement of public funds and sentenced to death with a two year reprieve on December 4, 2007, according to the Xinhua news agency. Whether Zhang had a role in the 290 million yuan fraud case remains unclear.

Jiang's alleged accomplice in the 290 million yuan fraud case was Li Dongzhe. Li is believed to have had a role in a larger series of frauds totaling more than 1 billion yuan from 2000 to 2004. Gao Shan, former president of the BOC's Hesongjie sub-branch, is suspected in the frauds as well; he and Li allegedly transferred the stolen funds abroad.

Gao and his family, along with Li Dongzhe, fled China on December 31, 2004, before the case had come to light. They are still at large.

The victims of the frauds included the Northeast Expressway Company, the Heilongjiang Chenneng High-Tech Risk Investment Company, the Heilongjiang Provincial Social Insurance Administration and the Harbin Tourism Bureau.

The Northeast Expressway Company and the Heilongjiang Chenneng High-Tech Risk Investment Company filed suit in 2005 seeking compensation from the BOC. The Supreme People's Court ruled in December 2008 that the bank should pay Northeast Expressway 293 million yuan, with interest. In March, it ruled it should pay Chenneng 278 million yuan, with interest.