Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
Rare dinosaur fossils It has been reported that assets worth more than £12 million have been seized following a settlement with a Singapore-based Chinese businessman in connection with a civil recovery investigation.
A lawyer for the National Crime Agency (NCA) told a court hearing on Tuesday that the agency has recovered Jurassic-era dinosaur skeletons Two Allosaurus and one Stegosaurus are estimated to have been around. 150 million years oldUnder the Proceeds of Crime Act, from Su Binghai and his company Su Empire Limited.
The law allows authorities to recover property acquired illegally, even without a criminal conviction.
The case was brought by the NCA as a civil extortion investigation. The NCA did not provide any details of the allegations that led to the case involving Mr Su.
The NCA said Mr Su would seize three complete fossil skeletons dinosaurNine apartments in London, worth £15 million, and 11 Chinese art works. However, he will be given 25 percent of the sale proceeds. According to Bloomberg, his lawyers declined to comment after the court hearing.
The dinosaur skeletons were bought for £12.4m at Christie’s Jurassic Icons auction last year. The photographs released at the time resembled a display in a natural history museum.
Christie’s said the lot represents the first dinosaur skeletons offered at its King Street auction house, including “the instantly recognizable Stegosaurus, with its tail spikes and rows of armored plates, along with a pair of the fearsome carnivorous Allosaurus”.
All three specimens were found “close to each other” in the Meelin Mine in Wyoming and were described as having a “beautiful black color”.
11 Chinese artefacts recovered in the case were bought at auction in 2022 for more than £400,000.
.png)
Mr Su has agreed to a “full and final settlement of all claims”, the NCA said, according to court documents seen by Reuters. NCA officials said that the dinosaur skeletons are currently kept in a warehouse in London.
“I doubt any of us will ever have to deal with any of this again,” Judge Gavin Mansfield said during the hearing.
Mr Su was accused of involvement in Singapore’s biggest money laundering case of 2023, which resulted in the conviction and jailing of at least 10 people.
Authorities seized three billion Singapore dollars worth of cash, real estate, cryptocurrencies and other assets used to launder the proceeds of overseas organized crime, including scams and online gambling. An Interpol notice was issued against Mr Su, but it was later dropped after he and his wife agreed to a deal with authorities, which led to the confiscation of their passports in the state.