Chinese man of many names charged in New Zealand

Jul 3, 2009, 23:31 GMT

Wellington - A Chinese businessman said to be friendly with a number of New Zealand members of parliament has been arrested and charged with immigration and passport offences, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Yong Ming Yan - also known as Bill Liu, Yang Liu and William Yan - was arrested on June 27 as he was about to board a plane to leave the country, the Weekend Herald reported.

He subsequently appeared in court on 12 charges alleging he made false declarations on his immigration papers, had false passports and used deception to gain New Zealand citizenship.

Although police opposed bail, it was granted on condition he report to the Auckland central police station twice a day, the paper said.

'The criminal charges are embarrassing for several MPs who assisted Yan's successful bid for citizenship, granted last August,' the Herald said.

It reported that the accused, who was charged under the name Yong Ming Yan, was a multi-millionaire businessman whose application for citizenship was supported by Chinese-born politician Pansy Wong.

Wong was an opposition member of parliament at the time, but is now minister of ethnic affairs in the conservative National Party cabinet.

His bid was also supported by two other parliamentarians, Dover Samuels and Chris Carter, members of the Labour Party which was in power at the time.

The paper said immigration officials had opposed the citizenship application saying they did not know his true identity as he had two names, two passports and two birth dates.