Fugitive Hong Kong billionaire puts £90million London mansion complete with pool and spa up for sale
A fugitive Hong Kong billionaire convicted of bribery and money laundering has put his £90million London mansion up for sale.
A fugitive Hong Kong billionaire convicted of bribery and money laundering has put his £90million London mansion up for sale.
The mansion, controlled by property tycoon Joseph Lau and his family through their company Chinese Estates, is on Eaton Square in the centre of Londons Belgravia.
Buyers are being searched for off-market, meaning the sale is not advertised to the public, The Telegraph first reported.
Mr Lau, 73, has been living in Hong Kong since 2014, after a Macau court convicted him of bribery and money laundering.
He was sentenced to a five-year jail term in absentia, and has made an estimated fortune of $5.8billion (£4.8billion) investing in property in China and Hong Kong.
The mansion on Eaton Square is marketed at £90million, it is understood, and comes with a pool and spa.
Billionaire Joseph Lau (pictured) is selling his London property on Eaton Square in Belgravia
The £90million mansion is on Eaton Square in the centre of Londons Belgravia (pictured)
If purchased by a buyer, it would mark one of the biggest London residential sales of the year.
Bids to sell the home come amid fears of an exodus of the wealthy from Britain as the Government prepares a tax raid targeted at the rich.
Sales of properties in London worth more than £10million decreased by 37per cent in the third quarter of this year, according to JLL, compared with the same period last year.
Mr Lau is a self-made billionaire who built up an astonishing property empire as the owner of Chinese Estates, and is famous for his lavish spending.
In 2016, Mr Lau took out full-page adverts to announce his split from his long-term girlfriend and gave her £200million.
He used the announcements to reveal he had split from Yvonne Lui in 2014 - and that she would not be receiving any more money.
The retail tycoon has two children with Ms Lui who he met at a Luis Vuitton shop in London.
In his newspaper adverts in 2016, Mr Lau said there was no more relationship between Ms Lui and me and that he does not intend in the future to give her money or other gifts.
Mr Lau has been living in Hong Kong since 2014, after a Macau court convicted him of bribery and money laundering
In 2015, Mr Lau splashed out £50million on two recording-breaking diamonds and gifted both of them to his daughter, who was seven at the time.
Mr Laus office confirmed that the real estate investor went on the extraordinary spending spree over two days at back-to-back jewellery auctions in Geneva.
The two eye-popping diamonds were presents for his child, it was confirmed, and he renamed them The Sweet Josephine and The Blue Moon of Josephine in her honor.
Mr Lau is among one of the first people to own a Boeing 787 Dreamliner for private use, is said to have a red wine collection of comprising 10,000 bottles and regularly pays eye-watering amounts of money for rare pieces of art.
