Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1198602
09.01.2020 7 FEATURE Ghosn often escaped the law manufacturer. He started his own ceil- ing fan company, Evergo, took it public and later expanded into real estate and hotels, becoming a corporate raider in the late 80s. e Plot: A Macau court in 2014 convicted him in absentia for bribing a city official that allowed him to take control of a piece of land near the airport. Lau has stayed ensconced in his native Hong Kong, which doesn't have an extradition treaty with Macau. Life on the Run: He hasn't bothered to stay quiet. Two years following his trial, he took out a full-page advertisement in several local newspapers to publicize his side of the story over a break up with a girlfriend. In the ad, Lau, the then 65-year-old fa- ther of five, made it clear that his former lover was well looked after and that he had showered her with some $260 mil- lion in jewelry and other gifts. Loot: Lau purchased two massive diamonds for his then 7-year-old daughter in 2015, the 12-carat Blue Moon Diamond and a 16.1-carat pink stone for a total of $77 million. He renamed both jewels after his child, respectively, the "Blue Moon of Josephine" and "Sweet Josephine." Vijay Mallya Background: e self-styled "King of Good Times" was known to wear diamond ear studs to business meetings and owned yachts, vintage cars and a stud farm. He inherited his father's liquor business, UB Group, in 1983 and turned it into the world's sec- ond-largest spirits group. He tried his hand at planes, too, starting Kingfisher Airlines in 2005 and then shuttering it around 2013. e Plot: To get Kingfisher airborne, Mallya took on a massive amount of debt, and a group of Indian banks have been trying to get him to repay more than $1 billion con- nected to Kingfisher since 2016 when he left India for London. Life on the Run: He has slammed the media coverage of him as a "near hysterical campaign" and decried the government's attempt to re- turn him to India as a "witch hunt." Scot- land Yard arrested him in April 2017, and while out on bail, he is fighting extradition back to India, currently appealing a Lon- don court's decision to do so. Mallya has insisted that he has tried to settle with his creditors. Gilded Cage: His Kingfisher Villa, named after the Kingfisher Beer his company owned, was the site of his 60th birthday party months before he departed India. Fireworks and performers Enrique Inglesias and Bolly- wood's Sonu Nigam entertained the 200- plus guests. e estate, which is in the ocean party city of Goa, is no longer his: It was sold for $11 million around the time of his arrest. Guo Wengui Background: His early life is largely shrouded in mystery. It's not known precisely how old he is, and Guo has gone by multiple names, including Miles Kwok. He reportedly started out as a public servant in China's Shandong Province before becoming a real estate mogul. HE amassed an empire that includ- ed Pangu Plaza, an office and hotel complex overlooking Beijing's Olym- pic Stadium, and indirect shares in Founder Securities. He was worth $1.1 billion in 2015. The Plot: He allegedly bribed a Chinese gov- ernment official, who helped Guo amass a controlling stake in brokerage firm Minzu Securities, according to the South China Morning Post. His shares in Founder Securities— his main source of wealth—were fro- zen in a court dispute in January 2015 before he fled, fearing corruption charges. Life on the Run: In the States, Guo, who steadfastly maintains his innocence, has taken up a position as a social media bomb thrower, going on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to post allegations of corruption at the highest levels of Chinese government. Among others, he has accused Wang Qishan, the Chinese official purport- edly leading a corruption crackdown, of conflicts of interest and extramari- tal affairs. Interpol issued a red notice for his arrest in 2017. Guo, who has remained safely free to roam America, attracted particular attention when he became a member of President Trump's Mar-A-Lago club in Florida. He is now suing WarnerMedia for defamation over a CNN segment that suggested that he is, in fact, a Chinese spy. Guo is also in an extended legal standoff with money manager Pacif- ic Alliance Group, which insists Guo hasn't repaid $88 million in debt, and more recently, he's been sued by the attorney who was representing him against Pacific Alliance Group. That lawyer, David Boies, says the billionaire owes him $640,000 in un- paid legal fees. Gilded Cage: Guo paid $67 million for an apart- ment that occupies an entire floor of Manhattan's Sherry-Netherland ho- tel. He sued the hotel after alleging that its workers entered his residence and damaged his terrace and a wall trying to repair a leak drain pipe. He and the Sherry-Netherland set- tled the case in April 2017. Nirav Modi Background: Modi's dream was as clear as the flawless gems he sold: to be "like Laurence Graff and Harry Winston," he said in 2013. ree years earlier was his big debut: the $3 million Christie's sale of a lattice-work necklace designed by Modi and centered around a rare Golconda diamond. He studied the diamond trade from his un- cle after dropping out of Wharton—and learned it well enough that his gems be- came fixtures on Hollywood and Bolly- wood stars, including Kate Winslet and Priyanka Chopra-Jones. e Plot: Punjab National Bank alleged in January 2017 that Modi and a business partner worked with some executives at the bank Mumbai branch to conduct fraudulent transactions, allowing a reported $1.8 billion to go to Modi's companies. Since then, other reports have pegged that fig- ure higher—closer to $3 billion. On the Run: When news broke about Modi's alleged fraud in February 2018, he was nowhere to be found. He'd last been spotted pub- licly at the annual power-broker summit in Davos a few weeks earlier, where he had posed for a picture with Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi (no relation). Re- porters staked out the Manhattan hotel room where he was believed to be staying but found only a servant and a white fluffy dog. Modi was eventually discovered in Lon- don, and authorities arrested him there last March. He's fighting extradition back to India, and a Modi lawyer has decried the procedures as having failed to find an- ything "substantial." Much to his unhap- piness, Modi has been denied bail four times, and he languishes at Wandsworth prison, where he was reportedly attacked in November by two inmates in an extor- tion attempt. Loot: Before his fall, Modi could escape the din of busy India from the backseat of a cus- tom Bentley and liked to dine at New Del- hi's best restaurant, Indian Accent, where the head chef would personally serve him. Once, Modi showed up to a Forbes in- terview with gleaming, elephant-shaped cufflinks, ornaments, he said, that he had designed "just for fun."