A 53-year-old man was extradited from the United States to Hong Kong on Monday morning, in connection with a $27.4 million theft.

The man was charged with three counts of theft, three counts of false accounting, three counts of procuring the making of an entry in the records of a bank, and one count of dealing with the proceeds of an indictable offence. He will appear in the Eastern Magistrates' Courts today.

The chairman of a Hong Kong-listed company discovered on July 25, 1997, that US$3,230,000 from his personal bank account had been remitted to a bank in Zurich on July 14, 1997, without his knowledge or authorisation.

Further checks revealed that three other unauthorised remittance instructions had been made from his account to accounts held in the United States and Macau between May and June 1997.

The total amount involved in these four unauthorised remittances was about $27.4 million.

Police investigations found the chairman's secretary, a 40-year-old woman, was the suspect's girlfriend.

Her role was to prepare documents in English for the chairman's signature.

The man and woman allegedly conspired to forge the written remittance instructions and set up bank accounts in the US, Macau and Switzerland for laundering the stolen proceeds.

Pair fled before Police were notified of theft

The duo fled Hong Kong before a report was made to Police on July 25, 1997.

The man was arrested in the US on October 9 at the request of the Hong Kong Police. His girlfriend was netted in Singapore on October 13.

On December 9 the woman was surrendered to Hong Kong and charged with 13 counts of theft-related offences.

She appeared in the Eastern Magistrates' Courts to face trial and was remanded in custody.