BEIJING -- A fugitive graft suspect, Huang Yide, has returned to China to surrender himself to the authorities, China's top anti-graft authority announced Wednesday.

Huang, former board chairman of two companies in central China's Hunan Province, was suspected of embezzling state assets together with a leading official of a state-owned enterprise (SOE) and fled overseas in February 2019, according to a statement from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China and the National Supervisory Commission.

The anti-graft agency of Zhuzhou, Hunan, started an investigation into Huang's case in March 2019.

The statement said all of Huang's illicit gains have now been frozen in accordance with the law.

His return is a major achievement for China's strengthened anti-corruption efforts targeting its SOEs and for the country's fugitive repatriation work, said an official with the office in charge of fugitive repatriation and asset recovery under China's central anti-corruption coordination group, pledging intensified work in this regard.