UPDATED - Just when things had gone quiet...

UPDATE: This gets murkier and murkier; Patrick Gower now reports:

Now here's a twist - the mystery Chinese millionaire, Bill Liu/Yong Ming Yan, is linked to an even more controversial Chinese billionaire caught up in a massive political scandal that is rocking the Communist Party to its core.

That link is through a man called Xu Ming - one of richest men in China.

Xu Ming is big time - touted as a potential Chinese Finance Minister before a foiled coup plot.

And Liu/Yan is apparently so close he even bought Xu Ming into New Zealand for a visit at one point.

Now political scandals don't get much bigger than the one going on in China that Xu Ming is connected to.

It's all about fallen Chinese Communist Party high-flyer Bo Xilai touted as a future leader of the Communist Party - stripped of his post while his wife is probed for the murder of a British national.

And Xu Ming was one of Bo Xilai's closest allies.

According to this Wall Street Journal article, Xu Ming has been missing since late March - amid reports he was arrested for corruption.

Documents I obtained under the Official Information Act show Liu boasted of his connections to Xu Ming back in 2005:

"In November 2005 he will host two very important businessmen from China. One of the visitors will be Mr. Xu Ming whom is listed as the 8th wealthiest person in China with a reported wealth of over $1.5 billion dollars."

This was all in a submission to the New Zealand Immigration Service to try and prevent his residency being revoked.

The links with Xu Ming raise some interesting questions:

• Why was Bill Liu/Yong Ming Yan so fearful of going back to China if he had connections with people so close to the very top of the Communist Party?
• Why was Bill Liu /Yong Ming Yan - who claims to be a leader of the Chinese Democracy movement - prepared to host such people out in New Zealand?

It is - like much of this case - incongruous.

If there is one thing David Shearer can take solace in, the Shane Jones/Labour Party involvement in the Liu/Yan citizenship scandal is on a slightly smaller scale than that tearing up the Communist Party.

Patrick Gower's last sentence pretty much says it all. Full marks to him for doing a bit of decent investigative journalism.

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Just when things on the Bill Liu case had gone quiet, Patrick Gower hasn't so much lifted the lid on the case as torn it off with his bare hands; check this out:

3 News has learned New Zealand authorities were working with Chinese counterparts to have a controversial Chinese millionaire extradited.

Yong Ming Yan, also known as Bill Liu, is the mystery Chinese man Shane Jones granted New Zealand citizenship against official advice.

And new documents show how why officials wanted rid of Mr Yan.

In China he faced allegations that he "misappropriated funds in excess of $61 million New Zealand dollars", and "Chinese authorities wanted him returned to face charges and had requested his extradition.”

Discussion between officials in both countries was happening just three weeks before Mr Jones' decision, and the Chinese Ministry of Public Security referred to "the importance of the Yan case."

It was of course around this time that Shane Jones approved Mr Liu's New Zraland citizenship on humanitarian grounds; read on:

But Mr Jones had a different view. He granted Mr Yan citizenship on humanitarian grounds, believing he would be executed if returned to China.

The documents also detail a raid on Mr Yan's apartment in the Metropolis tower. They show there was plenty of interest in taking part – not just from immigration – but also the Police’s Asian Crime Squad, Internal Affairs, Customs, the Serious Fraud Office, Inland Revenue and the Ministry of Fisheries.

Authorities were also informed by Internal Affairs that Mr Yan “is spending literally millions of dollars at the casino and associating with known criminals."

And Gower sums it all up very succinctly:

So officials here and in China were working on having Mr Yan extradited. Then, at complete cross-purposes, Mr Jones' decision meant Mr Yan got citizenship here in a special ceremony at Parliament. That decision is now under investigation by the Auditor-General - and Mr Jones declined to comment today.

The Auditor General is investigating all aspects of the case, not just the process by which Shane Jones made his decision, which was what David Shearer wanted when he called for an investigation. It now seems that the version of events that Internal Affairs has maintained throughout the time since this issue became public is right on the money, and that Mr Liu indeed would have struggled to meet the good character requirement in order to receive citizenship.

And before people suggest that Mr Liu has already had his day in Court, the charges of which he was acquitted related solely to the use of alleged fraudulent documents in immigration and citizenship applications.

Patrick Gower is dead right. Shane Jones' decision to grant citizenship was indeed at cross-purposes with the information held by government officials. And it was most certainly at cross-purposes with the advice of senior Internal Affairs officials to Mr Jones, which was to decline the application for citizenship.

The Auditor-General will report on the investigation into Shane Jones' decision in due course. But we wonder whether the information supplied to Patrick Gower on which his story is based will fall under the category of "any other matters the Auditor-General considers it desirable to report on.", the third of the Terms of Reference for Francis Cooke QC's investigation.