CHINA:Macao prosecutors used a PowerPoint presentation in the courtroom to expose Ao Man-long's shopping list of shady property deals, with some of the biggest casino names in the former Portuguese colony scribbled in a notebook beside millions of dollars worth of patacas, the local currency.
Mr Ao, once Macao's transport and public works minister, was jailed for 27 years after being found guilty on 57 out of 76 counts of corruption, including taking bribes, laundering money and abusing power, largely through kickbacks to property developers in Asia's Las Vegas.
It's been the trial of the century in Macao, where corruption has long been tolerated, particularly when it relates to the casino business that is the mainstay of the enclave's economy, but has reached levels so outrageous that it has caused a public outcry, with people marching in the streets against graft.
The scandal has linked the territory's power-wielding officials to its biggest private companies - the casinos - in a string of dodgy land deals.
Sam Hou Fai, president of Macao's Court of Final Appeal, described Mr Ao (51) as predatory and insatiably greedy, a man who turned his public office into "a money-collecting machine".
"It has had a strong negative influence on Macao's reputation, and this influence continues.
"His illegal activities were complicated and brazen," said the judge.
Using techniques familiar to anyone who has ever watched a gangster movie about bent public officials, Mr Ao built up a fortune worth nearly €70 million, more than 57 times his income over seven years as a top policy secretary. He was the most senior official to go on trial since 1999.
Mr Ao was once considered a political ally of Macao's chief executive, Edmund Ho, who has also been tied in to some of the deals under investigation.
Investigators raiding Mr Ao's house found wads of $100 bills, euro, Hong Kong currency, luxury watches, vintage wine and cigars, as well as a network of offshore bank accounts.
A former legal consultant testified how Mr Ao gave her a HK$250,000 (€22,000) Tiffany diamond ring and other jewellery. That cannot be easy on a civil servant's salary.
A key issue has been the way in which public land is sold. Macao law requires for public land to be sold through open bidding, except with the chief executive's permission, and there has been widespread unhappiness about "land giveaways", where sites are sold to developers at prices much below their market worth.
Only three plots of land out of hundreds have been sold openly since Macao reverted to Chinese rule in 1999.
Earlier this month, a rare open auction saw a parcel of land go for 10 times the government minimum sale price.
"These unexplained inconsistencies look set to join the ranks of other notorious Macao riddles such as the "self-directed" death of casino manager Chao Yeuk-hong, aka Sister Cat, and policeman Hoi Weng-chong's gunshot into the air that hit a motorcyclist 300 metres away," wrote the South China Morning Post, referring to the often opaque way in which things often move in Macao.
The government now intends to confiscate €22 million from Mr Ao's assets, and also seize property he owned both locally and abroad, including a £5 million house in London.