Suva businessman and hotelier Fugang Zhao has denied reports that he heads an organised crime group in Fiji.
Mr Zhao’s denial comes after the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an international investigative journalism agency, released an investigative report on Thursday into the businessman and his relationship with top former Fiji officials.
OCCRP reported that Fiji Police officers had warned former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and former commissioner of police Sitiveni Qiliho of Mr Zhao’s associations, but both men had continued to associate with Mr Zhao.
In an email to The Fiji Times yesterday Suva lawyer Nikheel Nambiar described the reports as “baseless” saying that Mr Zhao did not “partake in, encourage or support any form of criminal activity”.
OCCRP describes Mr Zhao as “a key figure in China’s attempts to build influence in (Fiji)”, saying that he has come under increased scrutiny since the change of Government in 2022.
In March this year, OCCRP and Australia’s Nine media outlets reported that Australian intelligence and law enforcement had each designated Mr Zhao a “priority target” due to their suspicions that he had organised crime ties.
OCCRP noted that Australian authorities had not made public any evidence against Mr Zhao.
“Critics say that Bainimarama’s government often turned a blind eye to an explosion of meth and cocaine trafficking over the last several years. Fiji is a logistics and tourism hub situated between drug-producing regions in the Americas and lucrative markets in Australia and New Zealand,” the OCCRP report said.
OCCRP says that it has a copy of a five-page 2020 Fiji police briefing portraying Mr Zhao at the head of what officers suspected was a local organized crime group comprised members of the country’s ethnic Chinese diaspora.
The suspected group members included Jason Zhong, who local investigators had dubbed a “Triad Boss” and “Ice Man”.
Zhong was convicted in 2005 of setting up a lab in Suva capable of producing almost a tonne of meth, and again in 2012 for trafficking Thai women to the country for sex work.
But Mr Nambiar said that Mr Zhao “has no connection” with Jason Zhong.
Mr Zhong did not respond to questions from OCCRP reporters.
According to OCCRP, Fiji police considered Mr Zhao to be the leader of the organised crime group and had briefed both Mr Bainimarama and Mr Qiliho.
Three different Fiji Police sources said that repeated police efforts to investigate the group were blocked by Mr Qiliho.
Home Affairs and Immigration Minister Pio Tikoduadua reportedly told OCCRP that Bainimarama and Qiliho “definitely associated” with Mr Zhao but declined to comment on the specifics of any ongoing investigations.
He did not respond to follow-up questions.
Mr Nambiar, on behalf of Mr Zhao, said his client “has no personal or professional relationship with Mr Bainimarama or Mr Qiliho.
Like any citizen or businessperson, Mr Fugang treated them with the respect due to the prime minister and police commissioner at the time.
“In the tourism industry, customer service is everything,” Mr Nambiar said.
Mr Nambiar confirmed that his law firm, which operates from an office inside the Yue Lai Hotel, was the registered office for companies owned by Mr Qiliho and his wife.
But he said his work for these companies was separate to his representation of Zhao and his companies.
OCCRP describes Mr Zhao as “a key figure in helping build China’s influence and fostering ties to (Fiji) elites”.
“His Yue Lai Hotel frequently hosted public events featuring Chinese embassy officials, senior Fijian politicians, and police,” OCCRP said.
It reported that the Chinese Government had strongly criticised OCCRP’s reporting on the Chinese Government’s relationship with Mr Zhao, including by releasing a two-part video online, dubbed “Slander in Paradise.”
“While Fiji’s current Coalition Government has pledged to tackle the narcotics trade and police corruption, Mr Zhao has continued to play a public role in the bilateral relationship with China even after his status as a top Australian criminal target was revealed,” OCCRP says.
“Photographs published online by Beijing’s mission in Suva show Mr Zhao at a September cultural event alongside a Fijian military official and former president, Ratu Wiliame Katonivere.”
“Zhao also attended a celebration of the People’s Republic of China’s 75th anniversary at the Grand Pacific Hotel in downtown Suva later that month alongside the Chinese ambassador, multiple Fijian ministers, and president Katonivere.”
