A Chinese fugitive who fled to the Philippines with his lover in the late 1990s was repatriated on Tuesday, according to a Guangxi News Net report.

The fugitive, identified only as Pan, is suspected of being involved in scam worth 16.2 million yuan ($2.44 million) in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

He was captured by Nanning police and Philippine immigration officials in an unfurnished apartment in an eight-story building in Manila on Nov 10.

Pan is accused of defrauding the Guangxi Civil Affairs Department and other organizations in June 1997. He was placed on the most-wanted list in October that year.

According to police, the suspect said he was cheated shortly after arriving in the Philippines and had lost some of the stolen assets. His lover returned to China, and he eventually ran out of funds and had to take odd jobs, such as collecting garbage, to make ends meet, the report said.

“Foreign lands are not a haven to escape punishment,” Xing Fujiang, deputy director of the Guangxi Public Security Department, was quoted as saying. “For those who turn themselves in, they will be given lighter punishment.”

Qiu Weiyi contributed to this story.