CHINESE police have issued an arrest warrant and released ‘wanted’ posters for former Aston Villa owner Dr Tony Xia.
A court in Beijing has ordered the controversial businessman to be detained after he failed to pay up his debts to disgruntled investors.
A wanted poster has been published in China seeking the arrest of Xia and offering a £30,000 rewardThe Mirror claim there is now a £30,000 reward being offered to anyone who can provide details of his whereabouts to police.
Xia and his company the Recon Group have been sued over a breach of contract and failure to settle their debts.
And he is also being chased by scores of unhappy investors who saws him burn up their money on his failed attempts to make a fortune in Premier League football.
When Xia took charge at Villa he promised big things after splashing out £76million to seize control from American Randy Lerner.
At the time he claimed to be a billionaire businessman and made bold promises about returning the then-Championship club to the Premier League.
But it turned out he was little more than a front man spending the money of a large group of other investors he sold promises of riches to back in China.
Instead of ploughing his claimed money into the club he gambled all Villa’s parachute payments from the Premier League on attempting to finance a promotion challenge.
When that fell flat he left Villa on the brink of going bust – and had lost the money of the investors who had all been sold the dream of lucrative profits from being involved in the Premier League.
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Xia was unable to meet a £30m payment to Lerner and the club was only saved from administration by the buyout by genuine billionaires Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris.
And it is the fuming investors in China who are pursuing him desperate for money they claim he owes through breach of contract.
Without Xia in control, Villa were finally able to secure promotion last season and are currently adjusting well to life back in the top flight.