Police in $43m settlement with Citizen Yan

The police have settled their case against William Yan and his associates, resulting in the businessman forfeiting property worth $42.85 million.

The parties settled in the High Court at Auckland. It is the single largest forfeiture that has occurred in New Zealand and the first that relates to crimes alleged to have occurred in China, the police said in a statement.

“This settlement is a full and final settlement of the proceedings under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act without any admission of criminal or civil liability,” the media release says.

Mr Yan — also known as Bill Liu and Citizen Yan — was accused of fraud totalling $129 million in his homeland China, from which New Zealand’s police have alleged he and his wife, Wei You, have been engaged in large scale money laundering since they arrived here in 2001.

Mr Yan and Ms You had their assets frozen in August 2014, with restraining orders on various properties associated with the couple, including a penthouse apartment in central Auckland, a number of luxury vehicles, and substantial shareholdings.

A three-year investigation was undertaken by the Waikato Asset Recovery Unit but the police faced setbacks in prosecuting the Chinese businessman, who avoided a “trial by ambush” in March.

In 2013, Mr Yan’s associates, Yingzi Zeng and Shui Yong Huang, also faced allegations of money laundering. They had their assets restrained, which included three Auckland properties, a Porsche and Maserati, and over $4.5 million bank funds.

Once the settlement sum has been paid, the restrained properties, vehicles, shareholdings and third party assets will be released from the restraining orders, the police say.

Detective inspector Paul Hampton says it is a “significant success for the police.

“The outcome in this case reflects the effective working relationship between Chinese and New Zealand law enforcement agencies,” he says.

The next step will be determining how the settlement money will be shared between the governments of New Zealand and China.

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