Man nabbed over poisoned cat meat murder

Police in southern China say they have detained a man suspected of murdering a billionaire tycoon over a financial dispute by poisoning the cat meat hot pot they shared.
Long Liyuan,  a Guangdong provincial people’s congress delegate who made his fortune running a forestry company in wealthy Guangdong province, died last month after sharing a dinner of cat meat hot pot – a local delicacy – with two associates at a restaurant in Yangjiang city.
Police had detained one of the two associates, Huang Guang, a local forestry official, on suspicion of poisoning the meal after a business deal went sour.
“Huang, who was helping Long take a lease on a forest, had himself used funds provided by Long. This led to an economic dispute and gave Huang the idea to kill Long with poison,” said a statement on the city’s official microblog.
Long’s brother claimed at the time that the billionaire had been poisoned, and his family posted a 100,000 yuan reward for information about his death.
All three men fell ill after eating the meat on December 23, but Huang and the third diner recovered, the Guangdong-based Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper reported yesterday.
The paper said that Huang had snuck into the restaurant kitchen to poison their food with gelsemium elegans, a poisonous plant native to China while the cooks were away.
Long or his firm appeared to have paid Huang a total of 3.5 million yuan (USD 556,000) for various services and Huang had recently been trying to raise more money to settle debts, it said.