Police arrested Yong Ming Yan last Saturday as he was about to board a plane to leave the country.

Police arrested Yong Ming Yan last Saturday as he was about to board a plane to leave the country.

Police have charged a multi-millionaire businessman, who was granted New Zealand citizenship in controversial circumstances, with making false declarations on immigration papers and using fake identities to obtain a passport.

Yong Ming Yan - also known as Bill Liu, Yang Liu and William Yan - was supported in his citizenship bid last year by Labour MPs Dover Samuels and Chris Carter, and National MP Pansy Wong.

Police arrested him last Saturday as he was about to board a plane to leave the country.

He appeared in Manukau District Court, and is facing 12 charges in relation to false declarations on his immigration papers, having false passports and using deception to gain citizenship.

Yan entered no plea to eight charges under the Crimes Act, two under the Passport Act and one under each under the Immigration Act and Citizenship Act.

Police opposed bail, but Judge Gus Andree Wiltens approved it, setting strict residency, curfew and reporting conditions.

The bail conditions were altered when Yan appeared before Judge Oke Blaikie in the Auckland District Court yesterday. He is required to report to Auckland central police station twice daily.

Weekend Herald inquiries found that two Auckland properties owned by Yan, an apartment in the Metropolis tower and a waterfront home on the North Shore, were sold on January 12 for $10.5 million.

The criminal charges are embarrassing for several MPs who assisted Yan's successful bid for citizenship, granted last August.

Yan became a New Zealand citizen under the name Yang Liu, but changed his name days later and was granted a passport in the name of William Yan.

Passports he held in two other names were earlier seized by investigators.

He was granted citizenship in a VIP ceremony in Wellington last year after lobbying from former Labour MP Dover Samuels, who regards him as a close friend.

Rick Barker, the then Internal Affairs Minister charged with approving citizenship applications, was also on the list of politicians who knew Yan. Because of this, he passed the file to another minister, Shane Jones.

Mr Jones overruled Internal Affairs advice that Liu - now Yan - did not meet character requirements and granted him citizenship.