A CRUMBLING business empire, a missing mogul and 200 jilted investors: it sounds like a movie, but it’s the true story of recently disgraced Hong Kong businessman Tse Kwok-fai. Now an apparent death certificate has emerged online.

    The certificate circulating online is likely forged, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

    Tse is being sought by Shenzhen police in connection with the Shenzhen-based chain of fruit stores that suddenly closed doors nationwide, leaving employees unpaid and customers with prepaid cards without recourse.

    Tse is also accused of swindling 700 million yuan out of 200 members of the Hong Kong Tailongwah Association, which Tse helped found. Established in 2010, the association mainly consists of Hong Kong and Macao elites who used to live in Bao’an District and Longhua New Area.

    The association’s standing vice president, going by the alias of Yang Aihua, said Tse’s office in the Longhua New Area was decorated like a palace.

    Yang said the certificated was likely created by Tse himself.

    “If a person died in Hong Kong, a funeral would be held for about 10 days for his family members and friends to attend, but I didn’t hear about his funeral in Hong Kong,” Yang said.

    Born in 1954 to a farmer’s family, Tse spent his early years in Dalang Village in Longhua New Area. After illegally crossing into Hong Kong in 1978, he built a business empire over 30 years.

    Tse founded a Hong Kong-based corporation in 1988, with subsidiaries located in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Tse’s company was involved in real estate, financing, export trading, mining, technology development and hotel management. The corporation’s net assets reached 12 billion yuan in 2013.

    Tse said publicly that the overall value of his property was above HK$12 billion in 2014.

    “He put expensive antiques in his office to show off his wealth,” Yang said, adding that Tse enjoyed extravagance.

    Tse was also a bigwig among Hong Kong philanthropists as he has donated over 200 million yuan for charities over the past two decades and funded schools and public welfare program on the Chinese mainland. Tse was named an honorary citizen of Shenzhen in 1994 and became a member of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in 2011.

    (Zhang Yang)