A Canadian man has been detained in Macau for allegedly attempting to defraud a local entertainment company out of $284 million, according to the Macau Daily newspaper.
The man, identified only as Mr Leao, is accused of trying to transfer money from the firm's bank to an account in Hong Kong, according to media reports.
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The bank rejected his transfer attempt after his signature didn't match the one they had on record. A check with the company later showed it hadn't authorised any of its employees to carry out the transaction, the paper said.
The name of the company wasn't mentioned in the police report.
Sino-Canadian relations worsened following the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Chinese tech giant Huawei, in Vancouver, at the request of US authorities, on suspicion of violating Washington's anti-Iran sanctions.
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Following Meng's detention, China arrested two Canadian citizens, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor. While the detentions have been widely regarded as Beijing's retaliation for the arrest of the Huawei executive, Chinese authorities have denied the allegations, insisting that the two men posed a threat to the country's national security.
