A 40-year-old Singaporean woman wanted for the theft of more than $27 million was extradited from Singapore to Hong Kong last night. 

Police have charged the woman with theft, false accounting, procuring the making of an entry in the record of a bank and dealing with the proceeds of an indictable offence, and she will appear in the Eastern Magistrate's Courts today.

Initial enquiries revealed that a 50-year-old man, the chairman of a Hong Kong company, found that US$3.23 million was remitted from his account to a bank in Switzerland unknowingly in July 1997.

Further investigations showed that three other unauthorised remittance transactions were arranged to bank accounts in the US and Macau between May and June 1997.

The total amount of loss incurred from these four transactions was more than $27 million.

Personal secretary conspires with boyfriend

The Commercial Crime Bureau later discovered that the 40-year-old woman, who was the chairman's personal secretary, had conspired with her 53-year-old boyfriend to forge some remittance instructions.

They set up bank accounts in the US, Macau and Switzerland to launder the stolen proceeds.

The duo later left Hong Kong before the case was reported.

Upon HK's request, the Singaporean authorities arrested the woman on October 13 while her boyfriend was netted in the US on October 9.