180 economic fugitives back in China to face trial--And This is Just the Beginning!

[TaiShang]

180 economic fugitives back in China to face trial

Authorities in China have succeeded in getting extradited or persuading 180 economic fugitives to return to China and face trial since launching a campaign called "Fox Hunt" in July.

​

Two economic fugitives (second and fourth) are repatriated on Aug 3 from Cambodia after fleeing overseas with illicit assets. [Photo/China Daily]

The number of the fugitives being repatriated during the first 100 days of the "Fox Hunt" is more than that of the whole year of 2013. The returned suspects include many alleged corrupt officials who fled to more than 40 countries and regions, including the US, Canada, Australia and Southeast Asian nations.

Among the fugitives, 104 were hunted down by the police and 76 were persuaded to return. Forty four are suspected to be involved with ill-gotten assets over 10 million yuan (US$1.6 million).

China's Public Security Ministry initiated a six-month operation called "Fox Hunt" to target economic fugitives, especially corrupt officials, who fled abroad with their illicit assets. A special unit was set up by the ministry to oversee the operation. It comprises experienced police officers from the Economic Crimes Investigation Bureau and local public security departments.

According to the ministry, some corrupt Chinese officials have fled to the US, Canada, Australia and Southeast Asian countries in recent years, transferring assets worth many billions of dollars overseas through money laundering and underground sources.

Police in Australia and China recently pledged to cooperate on the extradition of Chinese economic fugitives, including many corrupt officials, in an effort to tackle the difficulties over the return of suspects due to a lack of bilateral extradition treaties.

Four of China's top governmental departments released a statement this month urging fugitive economic criminals to surrender themselves to justice.

The announcement is another move to reinforce the "Fox Hunt 2014" campaign.

Economic fugitives involved in criminal cases which have been listed or investigated can turn themselves in to the police, the procuratorate, the courts directly or through China's embassies and consulates before December 1, 2014.

Fugitives who have confessed their crime and returned to China voluntarily shall be given a lighter or mitigated punishment by law. Among them, those who actively retrieve and compensate the economic losses of the victims may get an even lighter sentence with lesser offenders receiving exemption from punishment.

More corrupt Chinese officials are likely to be repatriated by an anti-corruption and transparency mechanism being worked on by 21 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies.

US senior official for APEC Robert Wang said at the Foreign Press Center in Washington that the goal of the current work in the Anti-Corruption and Transparency network is to increase the possibility or probability that illegally obtained funds or criminals that go across international borders will be returned and will be treated according to the rule of law in whichever country they came from.

A suspect surnamed Duan is repatriated on Aug 30. [Photo/China Daily]

 

[+4vsgorillas-Apebane]

All fat old bastards. Should be called 'Operation Pig Hunt'.

I don't like the idea of lighter sentencing. Better than nothing though.

 

[TaiShang]

All fat old bastards. Should be called 'Operation Pig Hunt'.

I don't like the idea of lighter sentencing. Better than nothing though.

I guess that's gonna depend on their conduct. If they turn themselves in and the stolen money is recovered/paid back, then, they will probably be given lighter sentences.

If they turn themselves in but most of the stolen money is gone, then, they will have to serve a long prison term but their lives will be spared.

If they are, despite calls by the Chinese government, caught while they are still hiding, then, their life will probably not be too long. And their family have to bear the shame of producing a traitor.

One thing is for sure: They will feel the hell on their back from this time on, even when they are thousands of miles away from China.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

these are little fish where are the big fish

 

[TaiShang]

these are little fish where are the big fish

China has pretty much quantified the suspects and the amount stolen out of the country. They will be treated equally. The smart will be able to dodge longer, the smarter will turn themselves in, the stupid will get caught while on the run.

What is important (and intended) is:

1. Cumulative result

2. Deterrence.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

whats the estimated amount embazzled by all of them

 

[TaiShang]

whats the estimated amount embazzled by all of them

It varies according to estimation done by different departments.

No less then several hundred billions.


Fraud suspects give themselves up after 10 years of hiding abroad

Two Chinese nationals accused of financial fraud have surrendered to authorities and returned home from Cambodia following 10 years of evading arrest abroad.

China's Ministry of Public Security announced the suspects' return and details of their alleged crimes on Wednesday.

Zhu and Kong returned to China in July and are now in Taiyuan, the capital of north China's Shanxi Province.

The ministry said Shanxi police had begun investigating a 30-member group in July 2004 that included Zhu and Kong. The group was found to have lured 35 institutions to deposit funds in various bank accounts through the promise of high interest rates.

Then the group colluded with bank managers to transfer the deposit funds into their own pockets.

According to the police, Zhu and Kong fled China in July 2003 after swindling 150 million yuan (about 24.4 million U.S. dollars) from investors.

The fraudulent activities, which were committed from January 2002 to July 2004, involved 13 branches of five banks as part of 73 different cases.

In December 2004, Interpol issued an arrest warrant for Zhu and Kong. Over the past 10 years, Chinese police have cooperated with authorities from Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and the regions of Hong Kong and Macao to seize six suspects.

Figures from the ministry show that 18 runaway suspects of 18 financial crimes have been arrested and returned to China since the government launched a campaign on July 22 to hunt down corrupt officials and criminal suspects hiding overseas.

The operation, dubbed Fox Hunt 2014, is intended to block the last route of retreat for corrupt officials at a time when China's major crackdown on graft has already narrowed the space for abuse of power.

"We are now making policies and persuading people involved in financial crime cases, as well as other suspects at large, to give themselves up," said Liu Dong, head of Fox Hunt 2014.

 

[TaiShang]

Chasing China’s outlaws, where have they gone?

• 
  
• On October 25, 2014

The Chinese government has said that it is resolute in chasing down the country’s fugitives and illegal assets overseas.

During a sting operation named “Hunting Foxes 2014”, the Ministry of Public Security has apprehended 128 economic criminals who had fled abroad, from over 40 nations and regions in the world.

Around 320 people guilty of committing graft and bribery, and who fled within the country and overseas were captured in the first half of 2014.

In a statement sent to Xinhua on Friday, a spokesman of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) confirmed that the agency is cooperating with the Chinese authorities in hunting down corrupt Chinese officials who fled the country and settled in Australia.

Authorities say they hope the cooperation between the two nations will cut off the fleeing dreams of the suspects who plan to exploit to their advantage.

For suspects who have fled to a foreign nation, Australia is one of the most popular locations to store Chinese money. Many corrupt officials, and a number of economic crime suspects are now naturalized Australian citizens or permanent residents who have laundered money.

According to an academic paper looking at the fleeing and extradition of Chinese economic crime suspects during the past 30 years, 43 percent of the suspects choose developed countries like the U.S., Canada and Australia to settle down in.

Around 29 percent fled to neighboring countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Russia, with experts pointing to lack of money as the reason not to flee further.

Latin America, Africa and East Europe are destinations for 15 percent of the suspects, with reasons cited as a relatively low consumption level and looser legal system.

As for the remaining 13 percent, offshore financial centers are their temporary shelters.

In order to flee to another country, corrupt officials must usually have a detailed plan. They must acquire a fake identity, transfer their assets outside the country and will usually travel abroad frequently before hand so as not to arouse suspicion before their final trip.

***

APEC meeting (upcoming) is an excellent platform to deepen China's hunt for corrupt people. And Beijing will do just so.

China aims to set anti-graft deal at APEC Beijing summit

China hopes to sign an international agreement against corruption at the 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economic leaders meeting to be held in Beijing in November.

"Anti-corruption is one of the topics up for discussion, and one that all parties care about," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a press conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

"The world has already seen China’s determination and measures taken to fight corruption," he said.

President Xi Jinping launched a campaign to fight deep-seated graft on his election as general secretary of the Communist Party of China two years ago.

While the drive has achieved some notable successes, efforts have been hampered by a lack of international cooperation in repatriating corrupt officials and their ill-gotten gains.

"We hope to get cooperation and support from the international community ... so your country does not become a haven for fugitives," Wang said.

The United States, Canada and Australia are the three most popular destinations for China’s economic criminals.

Australia has already pledged its support for operation Fox Hunt, which was launched by Beijing in July to track down corrupt officials living overseas.

In the six years through 2013, nearly 6,700 corrupt Chinese officials were repatriated, Cao Jianming, the country’s top prosecutor, said last October.

Among them were about 730 officials suspected of embezzlement and bribery extradited from 54 countries and regions, the Ministry of Public Security said in July.

China has signed extradition pacts with 38 countries — including five Western nations — the first of which was inked with Thailand in 1993.

In 2004, the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation said nearly 4,000 officials had fled overseas with almost US$50 billion since the introduction of 1978’s reform and opening-up policy.

In 2008, the People’s Bank of China cited a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences research report saying that between 16,000 and 18,000 officials from Party organs, government departments, state institutions and state-owned companies had fled overseas or disappeared since the mid-1990s along with 800 billion yuan (US$131 billion).

@Dr. Stranglove , FYI, sir

 

[Keel]

Step on the gas
We are doing the right thing

 

[TaiShang]

51 economies sign pact to fight tax evasion
Source:Xinhua

51 economies signed a pact in Berlin on Wednesday to exchange financial information in order to fight against tax evasion.

By signing the pact which was officially named as Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement, governments were committed to exchanging a wide range of financial information including account balances and beneficial ownership with other participating countries.

The agreement was an outcome of a two-day international meeting on tax transparency, which was hosted in Berlin and coordinated by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

"Banking secrecy in its old form has become obsolete," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the meeting.

According to the agreement, data exchange would start in September 2017 among "early adopters". Others was expected to follow in 2018.

"This (agreement) will make it possible to stamp out the crime of tax evasion and to tackle tax fraud...Tax evaders have two choices - come forward or be caught," a joint statement by the 51 signers read.

"We are making concrete progress toward the G20 objective of winning the fight against tax evasion," said OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria after the signing ceremony.