HONG KONG - The Interpol has issued a red notice for Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui at China's request, the South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday (April 19).

It quoted sources who were briefed on the notice as saying that Guo was suspected of bribing Ma Jian, a former vice minister at China's Ministry of State Security, with 60 million yuan (S$12.1 million).

Guo has close ties to Ma, who is facing a corruption investigation. Ma is the most senior security official to be investigated in China since former domestic security tsar Zhou Yongkang was ensnared in a graft scandal and jailed for life in 2015.

An Interpol red notice is a request to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition, according to the Interpol website. It is not an international arrest warrant.

SCMP said the Ministry of Public Security in Beijing has yet to reply to its faxed questions for comment, while the Interpol said in a statement that they do not comment on specific cases.

Guo, also known as Miles Kwok, is a real estate magnate. His recent posts on his Twitter account indicated that he has been to the United States and London. China does not have an extradition treaty with both the US and Britain.

Earlier this year, Guo had two interviews with Mingjing News, a Chinese overseas media platform. In those interviews, he alleged that Fu Zhenghua, China's executive deputy minister of public security, had misused power against him.