At disgraced Chinese official's trial, wife's video testimony tells of threats and killing But even Bo's feisty court antics were outdone by a shocking 11-minute video of his wife, Gu Kailai - her first public appearance since her conviction last year for the murder of a British businessman. In the video testimony, which authorities said was taped Aug. 10 and posted on the Jinan court microblog Friday, Gu spoke in a soft, genteel voice as she described her family's once-opulent lifestyle, funded by bribes and political connections. Gu has been locked away on a suspended death sentence after a legal process that critics have derided as a fig leaf concealing deeper power struggles within the party. On the poorly made video, Gu rubbed her hands in a nervous manner. At one point when asked if her testimony was being made under threat or pressure, she laughed, then said no. Her testimony, combined with others Friday, painted the most complete picture to date of the motivation and events that led to the poisoning death of British businessman Neil Heywood, Gu's arrest and Bo's ouster from the party, where he was once a contender for China's most powerful ruling body. The highly politicized trial was closed to all media except heavily state-controlled outlets, and the couple's testimony and other details trickled out online in strictly controlled fashion. As they had done Thursday, Chinese authorities posted lengthy transcripts, short videos and photos from the trial in a surprising and unprecedented use of social media. According to Gu and other witnesses, the entire scandal was triggered by something as mundane as a bad real estate investment. The family bought the property in question - a luxury bougainvillea-clad villa overlooking the Mediterranean in Cannes, France - with alleged bribes from a Chinese business billionaire named Xu Ming. The villa's ownership was hidden through several shell companies to minimize taxes and hide the family's ill-gotten wealth, Gu said. She said she held half the shares on the holding company and gave the other half to French architect Patrick Devillers, who helped manage the property. But as Bo's profile rose within the party, Gu said, she worried someone would find out about the villa, so she transferred her shares to Heywood, a trusted adviser at the time. The property failed to generate as much income as expected from rentals because of management fees and taxes, and Gu suspected Heywood and Devillers of mismanagement, according to testimony from Wang Lijun, Bo's former right-hand man and police chief in the mega-city of Chongqing. When Gu moved to reclaim her shares of the villa, Heywood reacted in anger and demanded $2.2 million in compensation. He threatened to expose the entire family and, according to Gu, threatened her college-age son, Bo Guagua. So she killed Heywood, she said, triggering the cascading events that would lead to one of the Communist Party's biggest crises in decades. The court proceedings, which state media initially billed as a two-day trial, will stretch into a third day Saturday, authorities said.