MCLC: Heywood may have threatened to expose Gu's dealings

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Heywood may have threatened to expose Gu's dealings
******************************************************************

Source: The Guardian (4/16/12):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/16/neil-heywood-expose-gu-kailai

Neil Heywood may have threatened to expose Gu Kailai's dealings
Chinese police believe Briton fell out with wife of Bo Xilai after she
asked him to move money abroad, sources say
By Tania Branigan in Beijing and Reuters in Chongqing

Numerous questions remain over Neil Heywood¹s death.

Chinese police investigating the death of the British businessman Neil
Heywood believe he was murdered after threatening to expose a lawyer's
plan to move money overseas, sources have said.

The lawyer, Gu Kailai, wife of one of China's most powerful leaders, Bo
Xilai, is in custody along with a family employee, Zhang Xiaojun,
suspected of murdering Heywood, state media reported last week. Until now,
no specific motive had been aired.

The sources told Reuters that police believed Gu asked Heywood to move a
large sum of money abroad late last year and became angry when he demanded
a larger than expected cut. She allegedly devised a plan to kill him after
he said he could expose her dealings, posing a threat to both Gu and the
political ambitions of her husband.

Bo was party secretary in the south-western city of Chongqing until his
dismissal in March, and had been tipped by some to rise further in the
once-a-decade leadership transition due this autumn. He is under
investigation for "severe violations of discipline".

"Heywood told her that if she thought he was being too greedy, then he
didn't need to become involved and wouldn't take a penny of the money, but
he also said he could also expose it," one source told Reuters. "After Gu
Kailai found that Heywood wouldn't agree to go along and was even
resisting with threats ­ that he could expose this money with unknown
provenance ­ then that was a major risk to Gu Kailai and Bo Xilai."

The news agency said both of its sources had close ties to Chinese police
in Chongqing, where Heywood died. The Chinese government did not respond
to faxed questions about the case and neither Gu nor Bo have been seen
since March, shortly before Bo's dismissal.

Given that there was no autopsy before Heywood's body was cremated, it is
unclear how much new evidence can be gathered. Any case is likely to rest
in large part on the questioning of Gu, Zhang and Wang Lijun, Bo's former
ally and police chief, who is under investigation after fleeing to a US
consulate.

Wang is understood to have said he fell out with Bo after telling him he
suspected Gu was connected to the death. The police chief faced a
corruption investigation and some suggest he hoped that building a file on
Gu would ensure Bo protected him. Several people who knew Heywood believe
the relationship with the Bo family soured in 2010, but the Reuters
sources said there had been no sign of a dispute with Gu until October or
November last year, when the row over money began. They said there was no
paper trail for the financial dealings.

The Wall Street Journal has said Heywood told a friend he had left a
document 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/12/neil-heywood-murder-bo-xilai>
detailing the Bo family's overseas investments with a lawyer in the UK.
But other friends had not heard of such a document
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304444604577337951998961744.
html> or of Heywood having a British lawyer, it reported.

Questions had been raised about how Bo and Gu funded their son's expensive
education at Harrow, Oxford University and Harvard. Bo said his son
received full scholarships and accused critics of "pouring filth" over his
family. Last week an article in the official party newspaper, the People's
Daily ­ widely assumed to be directed at Bo given its timing and
prominence ­ said corrupt officials had been secretly using children,
wives, friends and even mistresses to move and hide illicitly obtained
wealth overseas.

Numerous questions remain over Heywood's death. The sources said police
believed he was poisoned by a drink and that Gu was not present when he
died, but they were not sure where his death occurred. They believe
Heywood was probably killed at the two-star Nanshan Lijing Holiday hotel,
also known as the Lucky Holiday hotel, a cluster of secluded villas and
rooms on a wooded hilltop, which Gu had visited in the past.

A guard barred access to apparently empty villas on Sunday and Monday,
saying a meeting was in progress. Reuters said police believed Heywood
also stayed at the Sheraton hotel, but the Sheraton has denied this. Staff
at both hotels said they knew nothing of a British man dying there.

According to the Economic Observer newspaper, the party secretary of
Nan'an district, where the Nanshan hotel is located, was taken away for
investigation by officials on 21 March. The sources said Gu saw Heywood as
her soulmate, becoming extremely close to him as she grew apart from her
husband, but they had not been romantically involved.

"Bo and Gu Kailai had not been a proper husband and wife for years Š Gu
Kailai and Heywood had a deep personal relationship and she took the break
between them deeply to heart," said Wang Kang, a Chongqing businessmen who
said he had learned some details of the case from Chinese officials. "Her
mentality was 'you betrayed me, and so I'll get my revenge'," he told
Reuters.