Wreckage in millionaire runaways' wake

By TONY WALL and LEIGH VAN DER STOEP

The young Kiwi couple who took the money and ran after their bank account was mistakenly credited with $10 million captured the world's imagination, their fans cheering them on via the internet. But Kara Hurring and Leo Gao have left behind a broken-hearted mother, a bank worker on the verge of a breakdown and a trail of debt.

Hurring always wanted to be a reporter. Hurring studied journalism at polytech in Invercargill, but motherhood thwarted her career. If she ever wants to reignite it, or write a bestseller, she could do worse than start with the story of her own life.

The early chapters might not be terribly exciting: born in Gisborne on March 17, 1979, to Suzanne Hurring and a father not recorded on her birth certificate; grows up in Milton, South Otago; graduates from Tokomairiro High School; gains a diploma in journalism; moves to the North Island, marries Chinese immigrant Andy Yang and has a daughter, Leena; studies as a dental assistant; splits from Yang and takes up with one of his friends, Leo Gao, also from China.

So far, so humdrum. Her younger sister, Chloe, 21, puts it best: "She's always been a normal Kiwi chick." But what happens next would make a great pot-boiler, and should have film producers and publishers scrambling for the rights.

Gao, his Rotorua service station business in serious trouble and his company only just put into receivership, suddenly finds on May 5 the temporary overdraft facility on his Westpac bank account has been increased from $100,000 to $10,000,000.

A female bank worker with more than 30 years' experience misses the decimal point when formalising the overdraft, a mistake that will leave her on the verge of a nervous breakdown and likely to lose her job.

Gao, 29, also known as Hui Gao, wastes no time cashing in on his good luck, attempting to transfer amounts totalling $6.7m to offshore accounts. Westpac manages to recover $2.9m, but $3.8m is gone.

Gao calls Hurring and tells her to get out of town. She pulls Leena out of Otonga Primary School and heads to Auckland. Gao is in such a hurry he leaves his border collie Sam tied to a kennel and leaves his unregistered and unwarranted Holden ute unlocked at Auckland airport.

Gao's business partner Huan Di Zhang and mother Lei Gao also disappear. All are believed to have headed to Hong Kong or China.

"Kara decided that might be a better life for them," Chloe Hurring says. "I just think it takes somebody with nuts to do it, someone with big balls. I don't think your average person would do it."

Hurring appears to be emboldened by a belief that because it was not her bank account, she has committed no crime. Her sister echoes that belief. "She can't be done for theft because she hasn't stolen... she hasn't gone into a bank with a gun and said `give me your money'," Chloe says.

That might be true, but legal experts say she could still be charged with money laundering, which carries a seven-year jail term, if she assisted or encouraged Gao, who could be charged with the fraudulent use of a document if he is ever brought back to New Zealand.

Chloe Hurring says her big sister has no fear of the police, but is extremely worried about what her mother, Suzanne, 53, a hairdresser in Blenheim, will do. "She's more frightened of mum than any authorities."

"New face $20,000, plane tickets $5000, leaving junker at airport $500, screwing a major bank priceless." - Sam Barclay, New York, on Facebook.

Aroha Hurring, who turned 23 yesterday, had kept in regular contact with her older sister and had her listed as a "best friend" on her cellphone account. When Kara called in early May to invite her to go to Hong Kong, Aroha thought it was a "bit weird" that her sister wanted her to travel that far. But her job on a dairy farm on the West Coast was coming to an end, so she leapt at the chance to make her first overseas trip.

Aroha and Chloe, speaking about their wayward sister for the first time, recall the events of two months ago from their mother's rural property south of Blenheim. Strikingly pretty and petite, they are hilarious when they start arguing, and describe themselves as "country bumpkins".

Aroha says that when she arrived in Hong Kong, Kara told her what had happened with the banking error.

She says Kara was living normally, not like a fugitive, and was not in hiding. Kara had spent time in China before with her ex-husband, Yang, and "really likes the lifestyle".

"I never saw Leo while I was over there, I was only with Kara and Leena. She was doing normal day-to-day... her daughter still needs educating so she's still keeping up on that."

Aroha says Leena was learning a few words of Mandarin, and was fine. "Leena really likes it over in China."

Aroha says she loved Hong Kong she famously wrote on Facebook about drinking Tsingtao beer and enjoying the heat and didn't want to come home.

"I was catching up with my sister and seeing my niece and tiki touring, just normal things you'd do on holiday, nothing was out of the ordinary. You're in Asia, it's amazing over there, I definitely see why Kara likes it over there, that's where I want to go back to, they pay big money for Kiwi workers."

But the good times ended abruptly for Aroha when news of their escapades broke in New Zealand. According to Chloe, their mother told Aroha to "get your arse back here".

Aroha: "It was a great holiday, I wish I'd never come back, but I had to, we had a family crisis."

On arrival back in New Zealand, Aroha realised what a big splash Gao and her sister had made.

"Everything was on the news and stuff, I was like, `Oh my God'. The police were talking to me but it's got nothing to do with the police. They wanted to know pretty much where I was, I told them that. I told them all I could, but my sister's pretty clever. I don't think I could do it, you have to have connections, you'd have to be a very clever person to do that."

Aroha and Chloe, who say they have not heard from their sister, seem torn by her actions, one minute praising her "balls" and the next castigating her for what she has done to the family.

Aroha: "Money's put into an account, you risk it or not. Risk it, I say, you only live once. How many people could live to say they've done something like that?"

Chloe: "I wouldn't do that to mum. Only because I've seen the hell she's been through. I've seen her in tears so many nights and it's just not fair. I know everybody else thinks good on her, go, whatever... but at the end of the day, mum would rather her be in the newspaper for something really good, apart from taking off with money and being a fugitive."

Aroha: "Leena's the number one in our family and for her to be taken out of school and taken away like that and mum not able to keep in contact that's got to hurt. But if you've got money like that I don't think you'd want to come home in a month or two. You'd want to make it last as long as you could."

Chloe: "And then come home and have to pay it all back or do a lag."

So has Kara got any of the missing millions?

Chloe: "Here's hoping."

Aroha: "I wouldn't tell nobody. There's stuff I haven't even told my family, I'm not going to tell a stranger."

Chloe [to Aroha]: "Well, has she?"

"I got an idea for the millionaires, why don't they come to Dominica, that's in the Caribbean. We need some investors down hear (sic), we are brokes (sic) and there's little employment. It's so easy to start a business, my prime minister falls for anything." - Anonymous poster on Facebook.

The impact of Hurring and Gao's decision to run is also being felt further north, in Rotorua, where an employee at Gao's service station, Barnett's BP, is picking up the pieces of his once-stable life. In the aftermath of his boss's disappearing act, Shybu Antony told reporters he was "heartbroken". He came to New Zealand from India six years ago and had dedicated the last three-and-a-half years to loyal and hard work at the garage. When Gao disappeared, the father-of-three was left jobless and owed $2000 in holiday pay.

"I don't know why he did this. He should give the money back," Antony says. Gao had otherwise been a good boss, allowing him to work flexible hours to fit around his young family, he says. And media coverage of the story did have a positive spin-off for Antony a local Shell garage heard of his plight and gave him a job.

Gao's early life remains a mystery, and so far no photos of him have been published. "He's a bit of an enigma, no one knows too much about him," says a source close to the investigation.

Gao is described as solid, about 178cm tall, and reasonably good looking. One source says he has Korean features, which may explain why he was initially described as Korean in early news reports. He speaks Mandarin, travels on a Chinese passport and has at least one sibling, Carter, in New Zealand. Carter Gao has stayed put and says he had nothing to do with his brother's actions. Leo Gao was involved in the real estate business in Auckland before moving with his family to Rotorua.

He and business partner Zhang have left behind mortgages with Westpac totalling more than $1m on two investment properties in Auckland.

Associates in Rotorua paint a picture of Gao as "greedy", a "control freak", or more bluntly, "a wanker". One disturbing anecdote has him "pxting" nude images of himself to a landlord.

Gao's relationship with Hurring was tumultuous, friends say, and they had split about a month before they absconded.

Chevi Lambert, owner of a liquor store near Barnett's BP, found herself the centre of Gao's attention.

"He used to come into the shop nearly every single day. He was cool but he was kind of a bit obsessive. Eventually, I used to hide out back... but he would come in after me. He was still going out with Kara then. He would invite me around to his place for drinks and he was always texting." Hurring found out, and erupted in a jealous rage.

Lambert: "I get a phone call from Kara saying, `what the hell is going on between you and my man?'. I didn't fancy Leo and I didn't fancy her jumping to conclusions. After she got off the phone, I hung up on her and I texted Leo and said: `You better tell your woman that we're just friends and not to call."'

Lambert says Gao and Hurring didn't socialise much as a couple. Gao liked his girlfriend where he could see her. Hurring went out drinking with friends a couple of times but "Leo didn't like it".

A friend of Hurring's, Ruthy Le Vaillant, says Gao has "no personality whatsoever" and was "not good enough for her".

"Kara is a beautiful person and sociable and very happy. But she was a bit toned-down when he was around ... He was just not sociable. I would say hi to him ... and he would just ignore me look straight through you like you weren't there very rude. The other word around town is that he was very money-orientated."

Gao was an ambitious but inattentive businessman, associates say, single-handedly running the garage into the ground and frequently scrimping for cash. Hurring provided a convenient source of free labour when times were hard, although one friend says she did that "because she loved him". At one point, Gao bought the fish-and-chip shop next door, but lacked the motivation to get it going. It stood empty for about six months and Gao eventually sold it for less than he paid for it.

There was also a rumour Gao was inflating the price of council dump tickets, which he sold at his service station. Residents buy the tickets to use the city's refuse station, supposedly for a fixed price, but Gao was apparently adding his own surcharge.

Le Vaillant, who was planning ski trips with Hurring for this season, is upset her friend didn't bother telling her before she "ripped off with the money". She has been trying to call and text Hurring.

When the couple abandoned the service station, the pumps were said to have been left open and "the whole town filled up for free", Le Vaillant says. "She could have bloody told me, she could have texted and said, `Come fill up'. I didn't even get a tank of gas. The rest of Rotorua did."

Le Vaillant isn't counting on being reunited with her friend. "She'd go on the run. She's an adaptable person. She's a fast talker and she's good at talking her way around a situation. She's been to China before and she's definitely adaptable enough to go and start her life again, being a survivor and that."

"Mr Gao, I know you are feeling very happy and excited but it won't last as you might now start feeling more scared than happy. It's never too late to come back and settle this matter. There will be people looking for you everywhere, how can you sleep at night? Are you sure this is the life you want?" - Thor Liou, on Facebook

At a rundown villa in the central Auckland suburb of Eden Terrace, with power extension leads taped to the bare timber plank walls, a group of student flatmates are toasting their good luck. They have been living rent-free ever since their landlord, Leo Gao, disappeared with Westpac's millions. Westpac has placed a freezing order over the property, but no one has been in touch with the tenants. They tried depositing their rent into Gao's account a couple of times, but it bounced back.

"No rent to pay as a student that's quite relieving," says tenant Jesse Connop. He excuses himself to answer a phone call. It's a repo man, asking about Gao and Zhang. "They want to repossess a car, or something." Connop's life has been pretty weird lately.

For others, Gao's decision to take the money and run has had devastating consequences. The bank worker who forgot the decimal point works out of a support centre in Christchurch, and mayo lose her job.

A source claims that Westpac is trying to performance manage her out of her position. If she loses her job, she may also lose her house as she won't be able to meet the mortgage, the source says.

"Mistakes like this happen all the time in the banking industry, the only reason she's getting it in the neck is because the arsehole took off with the money," the source says.

With police having jurisdictional problems with China, it is doubtful that Gao will be brought back to face justice any time soon, but friends say Hurring may be considering returning. Chloe and Aroha Hurring believe she will come home, for the family's sake.

Chloe says her sister is an "amazing mum" and only wants what is best for her daughter, but she should pay for what she has done.

"You do the crime, you do the time. I laugh, if she has to [do jail time] that's good. She knows she's done wrong."

-Sunday Star Times