A billionaire oil tycoon has been rescued after he was allegedly held hostage for more than a month in a £6million ransom deal.
Wong Yuk-kwan, the chairman of Pearl Oriental Oil Limited, had been found in an avandoned cottage in rural western Taiwan.
It’s believed the oil boss, worth an estimated £1.7billion, was abducted in September.
The 68-year-old businessman was freed by police and is understood to have told officers that he had not expected to “make it out alive”.
The Taiwanese police have arrested 15 suspects including a local village chief and two ringleaders responsible for the alleged kidnapping, according to reports.
Wong had been living in Taiwan before the abduction had occurred.
It is understood he had been on his way to the supermarket in New Taipei City when he was allegedly kidnapped and forced into a black car.
On October 20, after a special police task force had been set up to help find him, that a ransom note was sent to his company.
His kidnappers sent a video to Pearl Oriental Limited demanding 70million HKD in the form or bitcoins.
A further clip from Wong’s kidnappers was sent two days later after his family called on the kidnappers to prove the videos authenticity.
The family gathered £930,000 together but had failed to wire the whole amount over to the captors because of unfamiliarity with the bitcoin system, according to reports.
A rescue campaign was launched just a few days ago and Wong was successfully freed in Yunlin County in western Taiwan.
Pearl Oriental Oil’s main business is oil and gas exploration and the company is reported to be valued at 957 million HKD (£81,000,000).