Macao's Commission Against Corruption announced Wednesday that some 330 million HK dollars ( 42.6 million U.S. dollars) illicitly obtained and deposited in Hong Kong banks by Ao Man Long, the disgraced works chief, will be recovered to the government within this month.

Ao Man Long, ex-secretary for transport and public works of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), was sentenced to 28 years of imprisonment on 81 counts of corruption, money laundering, abuse of power, and false declaration of assets. He was arrested by officers of the Commission Against Corruption in December 2006.

The Commission's investigators have found that a large chunk of Ao's illicit proceeds was transferred to places outside of Macao, such as Hong Kong and Britain.

The Commission, in representation of the Macao government, began to recover over 400 million HK dollars (51 million U.S. dollars) still missing from Ao's corruption case in Hong Kong through legal process last year, and Hong Kong's High Court ruled in February this year that the money should be returned to the Macao government.

A small sum of the missing funds, 20 million HK dollars plus an interest payment of 2 million HK dollars, was returned to the Macao government in March this year, and the government will collect another 330 million Hong Kong dollars of the money, comprising euros, U.S. dollars and HK dollars, within this month, according to the Commission.

The Commission also said that it will continue its effort to recover the rest of Ao's ill-gotten gains, which is worth 80 million HK dollars (10.3 million U.S. dollars).

(Xinhua News Agency September 3, 2009)