When Businessman H took off from Reykjavik Airport on March 22, 2021, he knew what to expect. Iceland had warned him that, at China's request, a "red notice" had been issued against him by Interpol, the international criminal police organization, for money laundering and complicity in an embezzlement scandal.
The red notice, a provisional arrest request addressed to all police authorities worldwide, served as grounds for the French border police to surround the wealthy Chinese businessman's private jet with their vehicles when it landed in Bordeaux. H. (whose name we do not disclose, at his lawyers' request) was placed in detention. "This is not incarceration," clarified Pierre-Olivier Sur, one of his lawyers. "He could, therefore, keep his phone." Indeed, his phone never stopped ringing: Alongside the extradition procedure, H.'s relatives, former business partners and investigators called him, one after another, to try to convince him to give himself up to the courts in China, his country of origin.
H. was aware of Beijing's methods, but he did not expect to receive a call from Jack Ma, the famous co-founder of Alibaba and one of China's wealthiest individuals. Ma was H.'s friend and former business partner. But he disappeared from the public eye in China after a provocative speech in October 2020, during which he condemned the Chinese financial regulator as having a "pawnshop mentality."
'Did they approach you?'
A few days later, Ant Group, Alibaba's financial affiliate, had its initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which was set to be the largest in history, canceled, and Ma did not appear in public for months. Out of caution, H. got into the habit of recording all of his calls, which he had authenticated by a bailiff and included in his extradition case file with the Bordeaux Court of Appeal, which Le Monde was able to consult. In the call, Ma admitted that he was calling at the request of Chinese authorities: "Did they approach you?" H. asked. "Mhmm," said Ma, in confirmation, adding: "They told me I was the only one who could persuade you to return to China."
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