How Is This Fugitive Billionaire Able to Sell $20M of Art and Wine?
Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau is technically on the lam, but that won’t stop him from cashing in when Sotheby’s auctions off millions of dollars worth of his porcelain next month.
Lau will offload eight pieces from his collection dating to the Ming and Qing dynasties, according to sources cited by the South China Morning Post. Earlier this month, news broke that the billionaire would separately sell $3 million worth of rare wine at Christie’s.
Lau was convicted in Macau in 2014 of money laundering and bribery; he was sentenced in absentia to more than five years in jail. The 70-year-old tycoon lives in Hong Kong, which doesn’t have an extradition agreement with Macau, allowing him to dodge the sentence.