Cheung Tze-keung was a notorious Hong Kong gangster known as "Big Spender".
17 Facts About Cheung Tze-keung
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Cheung Tze-keung was a kidnapper, robber, arms smuggler and was wanted for murder.
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Cheung Tze-keung was best known for having masterminded the abduction of Walter Kwok and Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, son of Li Ka-Shing.
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Cheung Tze-keung was sentenced to death by a court in Guangzhou and was executed by firing squad on 5 December 1998.
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Cheung Tze-keung acquired the nickname "Big Spender" for his love of lavish living.
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Cheung Tze-keung was said to be a charming man with a taste for fine food and liquor.
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Cheung Tze-keung reportedly gave away tens of thousands of dollars to a young street painter when in Bangkok.
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Cheung Tze-keung partnered with Yip Kai-foon in a series of armed robberies.
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Cheung Tze-keung admitted he followed Li Ka-shing, then held him hostage in the Li's own house for three days until the ransom was paid.
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Cheung Tze-keung fled to China in January 1998 after failing to kidnap Chief Secretary for Administration Anson Chan, in retaliation for the jailing of his associate, Yip Kai-foon.
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Cheung Tze-keung had already fled to Guangdong province in January 1998 under an assumed name, having bribed the police there.
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Cheung Tze-keung was arrested in August 1998, and his gang of 35 were rounded up by mainland police.
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The charges, which were denied by Cheung Tze-keung, included the abduction in 1993 for a four million yuan ransom of a Fujian merchant who had only come forward after Cheung Tze-keung's arrest.
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On 12 November 1998, Cheung Tze-keung was convicted and sentenced to death.
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Cheung Tze-keung was executed by shooting on 5 December 1998 in Guangzhou.
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Cheung Tze-keung's lawyer suggested there probably would have been insufficient evidence to convict his client in Hong Kong without victims' statements.
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Cheung Tze-keung said there was no formal cross-border agreement on the transfer of offenders, but said that it would not be unprecedented to do so.