Bankrupt who gambled $20m jailed

AUCKLAND: A bankrupt Auckland builder who gambled more than $20 million of concealed cash and lost more than $1.5 million, money he could have used to pay back his creditors, has been jailed.

Li Dong Xie (50) was sentenced yesterday by Judge Russell Col lins in the Auckland District Court to three years and four months’ imprisonment on 10 charges under the Insolvency Act 2006.

Xie, who also goes by the names Lidong Xie, Frank Xie and Solomon Xie, was arrested trying to board a flight to China.

He pleaded guilty to the charges on March 12 — the day he was due to stand trial.

His is one of the largest insolvency cases to be heard before New Zealand’s courts.

Xie was bankrupted first in 2004 and for a second time in July 2010 for failing to pay debts he incurred while running his building business, New Town Home Construction Ltd.

He was then charged with concealing property, gambling, acting as the director of a company without the consent of the Official Assignee (OA), obtaining credit, trying to obtain credit, obtaining property on credit, failing to file a statement of affairs, and trying to leave New Zealand without the consent of the OA.

Court documents show between December 2010 and August 2015 Xie gambled $20,526,726 at

SkyCity Casino.

During that period his net loss was $1,518,828 — almost exclusively all on the gaming machines.

The court heard yesterday the losses could have paid Xie’s creditors ‘‘many, many times over by what was gambled, and lost’’, and that his victims had suffered substantial losses. — NZME