SFO seizes Sheffield flat in £17m China bribery probe

At the High Court on 14 July, the UK's Serious Fraud Office successfully recovered a property and its rental income from Dr Guang Jiang, an agent who helped British technology company Sarclad to pay bribes to secure business in China.

In a press release, the agency said: "The SFO’s 2013 investigation into Sarclad exposed how the company paid bribes to secure £17 million worth of contracts to provide technology services to steel production companies between 2004 and 2012. The majority of these corrupt contracts were facilitated by Dr Jiang, who acted as Sarclad’s agent in China. The company paid £6.5 million in penalties for its actions.

SFO investigators have been pursuing Dr Jiang’s criminal assets since he fled to China in 2014, breaching the bail conditions imposed as part of the SFO’s criminal investigation into Sarclad. The SFO has already recovered over £350,000 from his personal and company bank accounts. The investigation then led to the discovery of the Sheffield flat which had been transferred into the name of one of Dr Jiang’s daughters in an attempt to conceal it, and details of the bank account which contained the rental income for the property.

SFO director Lisa Osofsky said: “Criminals will try any means possible to conceal their tainted finances, including hiding dirty money with their closest family members. No matter the obstacle, we are committed to obtaining the proceeds of crime for victims and our country. We have recovered over £95 million for the British taxpayer in the last year alone.”