A passenger walks past a Bank of China branch in New York. File photo: VCG

A former Bank of China official who fled to the US in 2001 after embezzling over $800 million and was repatriated in 2018, pleaded guilty at a local court in South China's Guangdong on Thursday.

Xu Chaofan, formerly the governor of Bank of China Kaiping branch in South China's Guangdong Province, illegally seized and embezzled over $800 million in the 1990s.

Xu was put on Interpol's red notice list and was repatriated back to China thanks to joint law enforcement by Chinese and US police, after being on the run for a total of 17 years.

Xu pleaded guilty at a public trial on Thursday, after being given the right to defend himself.

The court will make a ruling shortly.