(Yicai Global) May 20 -- New China Wealth & Asset Management's actual controller has been extradited from Greece to China after being searched by Interpol for nearly one year due to running a business that has seized millions of US dollars from investors.

Zheng Xiaohe, who is also the former legal representative of New China Wealth, has returned to China on May 16, Guangdong's Provincial Public Security Department said in a statement on its Weibo account yesterday. The total sum that his business has collected is CNY1.1 billion (USD159.1 million), according to an earlier statement from the Chinese authorities.

Greece authorized Zheng's extradition in April after holding him captive for eight months. Interpol issued a red notice for him last July after the Guangzhou Municipal People's Procuratorate for the Tianhe District sentenced him to jail.

The Ponzi scheme started unraveling in 2017 when clients of Zheng's business reported that they did not receive the promised high interest for their investments as scheduled. Zheng fled overseas that August.

Founded in 2011, New China Wealth has entered a state of emergency and thus it cannot pay back its debt at the moment, the Shenzhen-based firm said in a statement last December. It has installed a new legal representative.

Editor: Emmi Laine