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Insight: French architect could be pivotal figure in China scandal By Alice Cannet and Lucy Hornby Posted 2012/05/15 at 6:41 am EDT RAINANS/DALIAN, May 15, 2012 (Reuters) — An elusive French architect is emerging as a key figure in China'sbiggest political scandal in two decades, with evidence suggestinghe shared both an affectionate and close business relationship withthe Chinese woman at the heart of the scandal. Patrick Henri Devillers, 52, is one of two Westerners in Chinaknown to have had close business ties to the family of deposedChinese politician Bo Xilai, specifically with Bo's wife who isaccused of murdering the other expatriate, Neil Heywood. Until now, only Heywood was alleged to have also had a closepersonal relationship with Bo's glamorous wife, Gu Kailai - afactor that has led Chinese police to treat his murder as one whereintense feelings of betrayal played a part. Gu is alleged to havepoisoned Heywood in November after a row over money. But one man who knew Heywood and Devillers during the pair'sassociation with the Bo family said Devillers had shown much moreaffection and intimacy towards Gu than Heywood had done, and thathe had assumed Gu and the Frenchman were lovers. "Heywood was an interesting and amusing character," said UKbusinessman Giles Hall. But he added, "Devillers was the one whoused to pat her on the back and put his arm around her in arestaurant. They were definitely, I would have said, an item." Hall had business dealings and socialized with Heywood, Devillersand Gu over a decade ago, mostly in the UK where Bo's wife wascarrying out some business and her son was attending school. At thetime, Bo was mayor of Dalian, in northeast China. The suspicion Devillers had a romantic link with Gu - in additionto business ties - suggests the Frenchman could be more than aperipheral figure in the Bo scandal, details of which are sketchy.The police case against Gu has not been made public. Devillers and Gu gave the same residential address when they set upa UK company in 2000: a top-story flat in an office building in thefaded resort town of Bournemouth. Some office workers inside thebuilding said they remembered Gu from that time but did not recallher having any male companions. Devillers' whereabouts are unknown. He declined to comment throughhis lawyer, Stephane Biver of law firm Godfrey-Higuet, a specialistin international tax and finance law in Luxembourg. His father and sister said they had had little or no contact withDevillers and did not know how to reach him. Gu, a murder suspect, is detained. Her husband has not made anypublic comments since March when he was sacked as party boss ofChina's biggest municipality, Chongqing. Just before then, Boaccused his critics of pouring filth on him and his family. Devillers' father did not dismiss the suggestion that his son mighthave been sexually interested in Gu. "It is possible, all the more since, according to the photos, sheseemed attractive," Michel Devillers said at his home in Rainans, asleepy rural village in eastern France. 'WHIFF OF SCANDAL' The Bo scandal is extraordinary on several levels, having broughtdown an ambitious Politburo member and ruffling a once-in-a-decadeleadership transition in Beijing. It has exposed the unusual extent to which an elite Communist Partyfamily - Bo's father was a revolutionary comrade of Mao Zedong andGu's father a military hero - allowed foreigners so far into itsinner circle and raises questions about the family's murkyfinancial affairs. Sources familiar with the police case against Gu say Heywood washelping the family move money offshore, and that he was killedafter threatening to expose her dealings. UK businessman Hall, who sold a hot-air balloon to Gu forpromotional use over Dalian, said he had been asked by Bo's wife tohelp in the illicit movement of 150,000 pounds ($240,000) offshore,a request Hall said he rejected. Gu had suggested Hall's firm should add the 150,000 pounds to aninvoice for the supply of a winch for the balloon, and that hiscompany should use this sum to pay UK school fees for her son, BoGuagua, Hall said. He added that Gu withheld a final payment forthe overall balloon deal after his refusal. "The whiff of scandal associated to it, we couldn't have it. That'swhen we said 'No'. She got very irked about it," said Hall whonegotiated the balloon deal between 1998 and 2000. Chinese citizens are only allowed to transfer $50,000 out of thecountry each year. Police believe Gu was using Heywood to helpskirt this restriction, sources have said, though evidence of thishas yet to emerge. Heywood's widow has no knowledge of any suchtransactions, according to a family friend. "It's a little out of the norm," said Steve Vickers, head ofbusiness intelligence specialists Steve Vickers Associates,referring to a powerful Chinese political family allowingforeigners to become so close to its personal affairs. "But it could be quite useful to have an expat "Mr fixit" who canmove things around, cross borders and not be on the radar screen." One other foreign businessman was also close to the Bo family:Larry Cheng, a Taiwanese American who was Gu's partner in her HorusConsulting business in Dalian. Cheng later set up a new consultingbusiness of the same Chinese name, with the financial help of XuMing, a plastics-to-property entrepreneur described by executivesas Bo's closest business ally. Cheng, now based in Shanghai, said he had not worked with Gu sincehe left Dalian in 1999. Xu has been detained since the eve of Bo'souster for reasons that have not been made public. WELL-DRESSED FRENCHMAN Tall and always well-dressed, Devillers entered Bo's inner circlewhile living in Dalian in the 1990s. A Chinese company had refusedto pay the Frenchman for some architectural work and he and hisChinese wife wrote a letter to the mayor's office. Then-mayor Bo Xilai intervened on Devillers' behalf and laterreferred work to him. In 2000, Devillers returned to France,leaving his wife to care for her aged parents and young son. Thecouple divorced three years later. His ex-wife, Guan Jie, who still lives in Dalian, said she couldnot believe Devillers had had a romance with Gu or had beeninvolved in moving large sums of money offshore for her. "Patrick wouldn't have gotten mixed up with anything like this. Hewas a very straight person, very polite, very honest," Guan said,adding she had lost contact with him since the divorce. "He had amental wall to block out anything bad. He didn't like complicatedthings, society things." Devillers' sister also said she lost contact with him many yearsago and had no idea of his whereabouts. His only known business address suggests Gu may have known where toreach him until relatively recently. In 2006, Devillers registered an investment firm, D2 Properties, inLuxembourg, using the Beijing address of the Ang Dao Law Firm - afirm affiliated with Gu Kailai, who had merged her own law practicewith it. Staff at Ang Dao Law Firm, housed in a dingy office blocknot far from Beijing's Olympic stadiums, declined to comment whenasked about Devillers. D2 Properties owns minority stakes in boutique property projects inFrance, Monaco, Martinique and Geneva developed by Devillers'father, a real estate investor. The father's RainansInvestissements owns 2 percent of D2 Properties, according to aRainans financial statement. Before D2 Properties was formed, Gu and Devillers had beenco-directors of a UK-based firm, Adad Ltd. Registered in 2000 anddissolved in 2003, its business purpose was unclear. Devillers' paper trail shines little light on the extent of hisbusiness relationship with Gu, but businessman Hall said theFrenchman had represented himself as a fixer in Europe for Gu, whoused the name Horus in many of her dealings, Hall said. "Without me Horus is nothing," Hall quoted Devillers as saying. (Additional reporting by William Maclean in TAUNTON, PeterGriffiths in BOURNEMOUTH, Michael Martina in BEIJING, Marc Joannyin PARIS and Thomas Hals in BOSTON; Editing by Don Durfee and MarkBendeich). The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Masterbatches , China Masterbatch Black, and more. For more , please visit Black Masterbatch today!
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