Chinese whispers over British businessman's death

The death of Neil Heywood has lifted the lid on the thriving corporate investigation businesses trying to dig up the truth about Chinese businesses.

Neil Heywood worked, from time to time, for a firm started up by former MI6 officers called Hakluyt.

Yesterday a spokesman for Hakluyt, a firm with offices in London, the US and Singapore, issued a statement saying:

The link between the 41-year-old businessman and former intelligence officers, however loose, has fuelled speculation that he was involved in espionage.

Certainly Neil Heywood's abilities to get information from foreign firms was well rated.

He was also employed by hedge funds to investigate Chinese firms. He spoke the language, had a Chinese wife and so had a close insight into the culture and by all accounts he was good at his job.

He literally got real results by exposing sham statements and in some cases the dodgy pasts of senior managers. He could get vital intelligence on firms and individuals and so steer firms away from deals that might have ended in disaster and ruined reputations.

He was also friends with Bo Xilai, powerful Party boss in one of the fastest growing cities in the world: Chongqing. That was a massive asset.

Bo had a reputation for 'cleaning up' the city, jailing gangsters during his high profile 'smash black' campaign, a crack down on the so called 'black' underworld crime families.

One industry insider told me it's "dangerous" work. Chinese firms often inflate their earnings. Financial auditors and stock exchanges have become suspicious about Chinese company numbers. Neil Heywood was in demand.

Checking out Chinese firms is becoming a fast growing, lucrative business. The new UK Bribery Act means firms who do deals with companies who turn out to be corrupt risk prosecution in a UK court, thousands of miles away from the actual scene of the crime.

So British firms dealing with the world's second largest economy, China, find themselves with a new incentive to avoid prosecution and do some proper 'due diligence'.

They need to hire one of the consultants or small firms of investigators who know China and its complexities to dig around.

In a society where 'face' is all important, exposing a firm's fraud can mean you make lots of enemies fast. The Bribery laws are "punishing" UK firms, says my contact, with their "draconian measures".

However it's creating a lot of work for the Neil Heywoods of the world. If his death is ever linked in any way to his work, and it seems possible that will never be proved, then we'll known just how dangerous trying to find the truth about Chinese businesses really is.