英国《金融时报》的一项调查发现，颜面尽失的中国高官薄熙来的家人曾在一位法国建筑师的帮助下，通过一家幌子公司在伦敦购买了豪宅。
后来，在英国零售商马莎百货(Marks and Spencer)联合创始人的曾孙的协助下，他们卖掉了其中一套公寓。
房产交易记录显示，注册于英属维尔京群岛的公司"Golden Map Ltd"于2002年至2003年期间，购买了至少两套位于伦敦富人区南肯辛顿(South Kensington)的公寓。如今这两套房产的价值合计超过200万英镑。
2003年至2010年期间，法国建筑师帕特里克•德维莱尔(Patrick Devillers)曾断断续续地在其中一套公寓居住过。这位与薄家有关联的法国人因牵扯进了中国国内的刑事案，于本月在柬埔寨被捕。
他所涉及的犯罪究竟属何性质，依然是个谜，但据信它们与薄熙来有关。今年早些时候，前重庆市委书记薄熙来遭到整肃，被清除出高层领导人的行列。
和尼尔•海伍德(Neil Heywood)一样，德维莱尔与薄家的关系也非同一般。（中国当局认为，英国商人海伍德的死与薄熙来之妻谷开来有关。）英国《金融时报》的调查发现，薄家之所以能保持奢华的生活，德维莱尔至少在某种程度上也起到了重要作用。
德维莱尔似乎是在2000年12月与薄家首次建立起正式的商业合作关系。英国公司档案显示，当时，德维莱尔和谷开来（谷使用了化名Horus Kai）在英国组建了公司Adad Ltd；二人给出的住址一模一样，都是海滨城市伯恩茅斯(Bournemouth)的一处租用的住房。
这家公司从未申报过任何账目，于2003年9月宣告解散。不过，那时谷开来和德维莱尔的兴趣似乎已经转移到了南肯辛顿。
时任标致(Peugeot)子公司PSA Wholesale Ltd秘书的巴纳比•史密斯(Barnaby Smith)说，公司那时想卖掉位于Coleherne Court的一套公寓，德维莱尔是头一个与负责卖出该公寓的房产代理接触的人。这栋公寓楼之所以有名，是因为戴安娜(Lady Diana Spencer)在嫁给威尔士亲王(Prince of Wales)之前曾居住于此。
史密斯向英国《金融时报》透露，随着这一交易开始办理正式手续，一些文件必须在香港签署并处理。英国土地登记管理局(Land Registry)记录显示，这套公寓的房产权最终记在了Golden Map Ltd名下。当时，Golden Map在未寻求银行贷款的情况下，买下了这处价值73.6万英镑的房产。如今，其价值已逾150万英镑。
这套公寓面积157平米，带有两间卧室，在房间里可眺望窗外的公园。有报道说，在薄熙来与谷开来之子薄瓜瓜2006年至2010年就读于牛津大学(Oxford university)期间，它曾被用作薄瓜瓜的"单身公寓"。
买下Coleherne Court公寓的一年后，Golden Map再次出手，以46万英镑购买了附近一套面积较小的公寓。
尽管房产权再次记在Golden Map名下，但这套公寓收到的水电费账单信、维修发票信及英国《金融时报》见到的其他信件，上面写的收件人全都是德维莱尔。
这套一居室装修时尚，四周是一个玻璃暖房，通向一个花园。去年9月，也就是海伍德死亡的数周之前，这套公寓被投入市场出售。今年1月，这套公寓以略低于70万英镑的价格售出。
英国《金融时报》见到的多份文件显示，这套公寓的出售得到了迈克尔•马克斯(Michael Marks)的协助。马克斯是布劳顿马克斯勋爵(Lord Marks of Broughton)的儿子、马莎百货联合创始人的曾孙。马克斯似乎告诉过推销这套公寓的房产代理，他代表的是他在牛津和哈佛(Harvard)的同学薄瓜瓜。
马克斯留下了自己的名字和在诺丁山(Notting Hill)的地址，作为该公寓的转寄地址。该公寓出售前进行了装修，一张金额超过1万英镑的装修发票就是开给他的。他还写了一些文档，详细列出了该公寓的保修和租赁条件等事宜。
就在这套房产的出售完成之前，马克斯写信给这名房产代理，通知他：公寓中的一个保险箱得撬开并移走（因为密码已丢失），而厨房设备和灯具都原封未动。
英国《金融时报》无法联系上马克斯或薄瓜瓜请其置评。
德维莱尔在南肯辛顿的邻居们（他们不愿透露姓名）表示，2005年前后，这名建筑师曾断断续续地在这套公寓居住过。当时他告诉一名邻居说，他的感情生活很复杂：前妻在中国；他的一名华人女友带着十多岁的儿子住在伦敦。
曾受德维莱尔之邀前来做客的一名邻居，在这套公寓中看到了"巨幅的中国城镇规划图"。德维莱尔似乎对他说过，这些图与来自政界人士的合同有关。
德维莱尔与薄家的关系及他在薄家海外商业业务中发挥的作用，突显出薄熙来案的一个关键元素。此案除了揭示出中国领导层不透明的政治斗争之外，还让外界认识到众多中国精英日益增长的财富及他们与海外掮客的关系。
在倒台之前，薄熙来的正式年薪仅为2万美元。在今年3月最后一次出现在公众面前时，薄曾表示，他妻子20年前就把她的几个律所全部关掉，在家里做些家务了。
中国公民每年的购汇金额不得超过等值5万美元，且海外收入还应缴税。中共高官未经批准不得出国旅行，按理说在海外不该拥有资产。但实际上，很多官员都在海外拥有不为人知的巨额财产。
诺丁汉大学(University of Nottingham)当代中国学学院(School of Contemporary Chinese Studies)副教授陈建表示，尽管对于中国政界人士而言，拥有海外资产在理论上并不违法，但"考虑到他们微薄的工资，法律上的问题是，他们是如何获得这些资产的"。任何违法行为都可能会受到严惩。
中国针对经济腐败问题的最高处罚是死刑。
英国《金融时报》吉密欧(Jamil Anderlini)北京补充报道
译者/何黎
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001045276
The family of the disgraced Chinese leader Bo Xilai bought luxury London properties through a front company with the help of a French architect, a Financial Times investigation has found.
They enlisted the great grandson of the co-founder of the British retailer Marks and Spencer to help sell one of the apartments.
Property records show the British Virgin Islands-registered company Golden Map Ltd bought at least two apartments – together now worth more than £2m – in plush South Kensington between 2002 and 2003.
One of the flats was occupied intermittently between 2003 and 2010 by Patrick Devillers, the French architect linked to the Bo family who was arrested in Cambodia this month in relation to alleged crimes in China.
The exact nature of these alleged crimes remains unclear, but they are thought to relate to Mr Bo, the former Communist party boss of the vast western city of Chongqing purged from senior leadership ranks earlier this year.
Like Neil Heywood, the British businessman whose death Mr Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, has been linked to by Chinese authorities, Mr Devillers was close to the family. An FT investigation found that he also played an important role in securing at least part of the Bo family's jet-setting life.
The architect appears to have first entered into a formal business partnership with the Bo family in December 2000 when UK company filings show that he and Ms Gu – who used the alias Horus Kai – incorporated Adad Ltd in the UK. Each cited the same rented residential address in the seaside town of Bournemouth.
The company was dissolved in September 2003, having never filed accounts. By then, however, Ms Gu and Mr Devillers' interests appear to have taken them to South Kensington.
Barnaby Smith, at the time company secretary of the Peugeot subsidiary PSA Wholesale Ltd, said a Mr P. Devillers was the first person to make contact with the agent selling his company's apartment in Coleherne Court, which won renown as the building where Lady Diana Spencer lived before her marriage to the Prince of Wales.
But as the transaction moved into the formalities, documents had to be signed and processed in Hong Kong, Mr Smith told the FT, with the final Land Registry property title made out in the name of Golden Map Ltd. It was able to buy the £736,000 property – now valued in excess of £1.5m – without recourse to a bank loan.
The 157 sq m two-bedroom apartment, with views over a park, was reportedly used as the "bachelor pad" of Bo Guagua, Mr Bo and Ms Gu's son, while he was a student at Oxford university between 2006 and 2010.
A year after the Coleherne Court purchase, Golden Map acquired a second, smaller flat nearby, this time for £460,000.
Although the property title again cited Golden Map as the owner, utility bills, maintenance invoices and other correspondence seen by the FT were addressed to Patrick Devillers.
The one-bedroom flat – stylishly laid out around a conservatory opening on to a garden – was put on the market last September, only weeks before Mr Heywood's death, and sold in January for just under £700,000.
Multiple documents seen by the FT show the sale was facilitated by Michael Marks – son of Lord Marks of Broughton and great grandson of the co-founder of M & S – who apparently told the agent marketing the property that he was acting on behalf of his Oxford and Harvard contemporary Bo Guagua.
Mr Marks gave his own name and address in Notting Hill as a forwarding address for the property. An invoice for more than £10,000 for decorating works on the flat prior to its sale was made out to him. He also completed paperwork detailing matters such as the property's warranties and leasehold conditions.
Just before the sale was finalised, Mr Marks wrote to the estate agent informing him that a safe in the flat had needed to be broken into and removed, as the combination had been lost, but that kitchen equipment and light fittings had been left in place.
The FT was unable to contact either Mr Marks or Bo Guagua for comment.
Mr Devillers' South Kensington neighbours – who asked not to be named – said the architect stayed at the flat intermittently in the mid-2000s when he told one that he had a complicated love life with an ex-wife in China as well as a Chinese girlfriend living in London with a teenage son.
One neighbour invited into the flat by Mr Devillers saw "enormous projections of Chinese towns", which Mr Devillers apparently said were related to contracts from politicians.
Mr Devillers' relationship with the Bo family and role in their business enterprises overseas highlights a key element of the Bo case. Besides casting a light on China's opaque leadership politics, it has illuminated the growing wealth of many elite Chinese and their connections with fixers abroad.
Before his downfall, Mr Bo's official annual salary was just $20,000, and in his last public appearance in March, he said his wife had given up her legal career long ago to be a housewife.
Chinese citizens are restricted to exchanging no more than $50,000 of foreign currency each year and are supposed to be taxed on their global income. Senior Communist party members are barred from unauthorised international travel and are not supposed to own assets abroad. But, in practice, many officials have secreted large fortunes outside the country.
Jian Chen, associate professor at the University of Nottingham's School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, says that while it is not technically illegal for Chinese politicians to own assets overseas, "the legal concern is how they acquired them, given their very modest salaries". The punishments for any violation can be severe.
The ultimate sanction for financial corruption is the death penalty.
Additional reporting by Jamil Anderlini in Beijing
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