Qiu Shan Lian an unlikely international fugitive

AS A director at popular fashion label Gasp, Qiu Shan Lian rubbed shoulders with celebrities and lived in a swanky mansion on Melbourne’s bayside. Now she appears blank-faced and glamour-free on the Interpol website as an unlikely international fugitive.

A WEALTHY Melbourne fashion designer is on the run from ­Chinese police over high-level drug smuggling charges.

Qiu Shan Lian disappeared more than a year ago, turning fugitive after coming under scrutiny for international narcotics crimes.

An Interpol red notice was issued after a request by Chinese authorities.

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Shan Lian Qiu is wanted by Chinese authorities for drug crimes. Picture: Supplied

The fact they have gone to Interpol indicates she is in ­another jurisdiction, possibly Australia, where she has lived for more than a decade.

Ms Qiu, who is believed to have a baby, would have had good reason to go into hiding.

Drug traffickers face the prospect of capital punishment if convicted in China.

At best, they are sentenced to long stints inside China’s tough prison system.

Ms Qiu lived in Melbourne for years after ­relocating from China in the early 2000s.

Police and border protection authorities worldwide have been asked to look out for the 36-year-old businesswoman.

She has strong ties to Melbourne, where she once lived and operated a chain of successful businesses.

As a director of the Gasp group of stores, she rubbed shoulders with celebrities and the fashion elite at major product launches.

Her mansion in swanky Martin St, Brighton, was sold in March 2016, for $3.5 million.

The double-storey home, on an 880sq m block, has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and a pool.

The former Gasp store on Chapel Street Prahran.

Ms Qiu recently sold her Brighton mansion for $3.5 million. Picture: Supplied

ASIC records show Ms Qiu maintained a number of ­company directorships linked to up-market fashion outlets in Melbourne.

Among them was the Gasp group of stores, where she had been initially hired as a 21-year-old fashion designer.

But the Herald Sun understands she has had no involvement in them for some time.

Although precise figures are not available, many people are executed in China for drug trafficking each year.

Authorities have become increasingly concerned about the avalanche of methamphetamine being exported from the country, where it is manufactured in huge, highly organised factories.

An Australian Federal Police spokeswoman said: “The Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Chinese authorities work closely together on a range of law enforcement matters.

“The AFP does not comment on specific ­operational matters.”

Fashion designer on the run

QIU Shan Lian makes an unlikely international fugitive.

This is a woman who, not so long ago, sold her mansion in swank Martin St, Brighton for $3.5 million.

In her early 20s, she had held directorships of high-end fashion operations, most notably the popular Gasp label.

Gasp had stores in prime locations across Melbourne, including Chadstone, Bridge Rd, Richmond, Melbourne Central, Flinders Lane and Chapel St, South Yarra.

With price tags of between $100 and $700 per dress, Ms Qiu’s was steering a very successful business.

Her purchase of the Brighton home indicated her income was on a major upswing.

But there she is on the Interpol website, dressed in designer clothing, staring blank-faced and glamour-free into the camera.

The former Gasp clothing store in Southgate.

The 36-year-old is listed as the subject of a red notice, wanted by Chinese authorities for drug crimes.

The scant information provided by Interpol states she is an Australian national who speaks Chinese and English.

“Wanted by the judicial authorities of China,” it states.

Red notices are used by members countries to locate wanted individuals, often with a view to extradition.

Not that anyone here seems to know a great deal.

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Some of those who once knew or dealt with Ms Qiu were difficult to find or reluctant to return contact from the Herald Sun.

One former employee, who claimed to know nothing about the Interpol listing, could not get off the phone quickly enough.

“I don’t want to know about it,” he said.

Ms Qiu had close personal and business links to Melbourne businessman Alexander Yozefovich.

Mr Yozefovich — carefully described by one source as an uncompromising operator — was heavily involved in Gasp.

His name was aired during 2013 court proceedings in which a criminal was accused of threatening to infect a real estate agent with AIDS.

The purchase of the mansion suggested Ms Qiu’s income was on a major upswing. Picture: Supplied

The criminal turned up at the agent’s office and said: “I’ve been to jail. I’m a drug addict. I’ve been sent here to give you a message. If you don’t pay your debts by 12 today, you will be injected with AIDS.”

A police summary stated that the victim believed the threat may have been linked to his previous dealings with Mr Yozefovich.

The criminal denied he had been sent by Mr Yozefovich, for whom he had previously worked as a cleaner.

Mr Yozefovich, who has been involved in a number of civil legal matters over the years, could not be contacted for comment.

Former Martin St neighbours said Qiu was rarely seen, coming and going quietly from her opulent property.

“They kept to themselves a lot,” one said.

A 2010 legal dispute with a rival clothing manufacturer shed some light on this mysterious woman.

Gasp and the Rosemin label slugged it out in the Federal Court, each claiming the other had pinched their dress designs.

The battle centred around dresses described by one of the witnesses as “promiscuous” and “playful”, created for wear by women aged 16 to 25 at functions, clubs and parties.

The court heard Ms Qiu had trained in fashion design at a college in her native China.

Aged 21, she was hired by Gasp as a fashion consultant, later taking on the role of designer, before being appointed a director.

She was to tell the court that she was responsible for importing stock from China, chiefly from a company called Gang Sheng.

Those items, dispatched from the port of Shanghai, were sent to Australia couriers or airfreight.

It is unclear whether Ms Qiu’s use of import processes is linked to the allegations against her.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents show Ms Qiu has had a succession of company involvements linked to the rag trade since the early 2000s.

Most appear to have been deregistered in recent years.

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Originally published as Qiu Shan Lian an unlikely international fugitive