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China supports US indictment against corrupt ex-bankers
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-02-10 11:46
Chinese officials and law experts on Thursday applauded to a US indictment
against two ex-Chinese bank managers, which they consider a warning to over
4,000 corrupt Chinese officials that flee abroad.
"It's a progress in China's efforts to call back fleeing corrupt officials,"
said Liu Wenzong, law professor of Foreign Affairs College. "They might notice
the United States is no longer an ideal refugee."
Last week, Xu Guojun and Xu Chaofan, two former managers at the Bank of
China's Kaiping branch in the southern province of Guangdong, and their wives
and one other relative were charged in Las Vegas with 15 counts of racketeering,
money laundering and fraud.
They allegedly transfer embezzled fund or do business with it and forge
passports and visas, according to the indictment. The two managers allegedly
defrauded 485 million U.S. dollars of the state-owned bank.
The Bank of China is one of China's four biggest state-owned commercial
banks.
Wang Zhaowen, spokesman of Bank of China on Monday said the bank would
cooperate with US investigators in solving the scam, while tightening its
controls to prevent further graft.
"It is an important cooperation-operation between law enforcement departments
of the two countries," said Gong Xiaobing, head of Judicial Aid & Foreign
Affairs Department of China's Justice Ministry.
He said China-US cooperation-operation had succeeded in bringing in Yu
Zhendong, a third corrupt banker of Kaiping branch, from the United States in
April 2004.
"The Justice Ministry will support and encourage further joint efforts
between the two countries," Gong said, adding that China-US legal cooperation
had run smoothly since 2000 when they signed a treaty of judicial aid.
The three former managers of Kaiping fled to Canada and the United States via
Hong Kong in late 2001 as they were suspected to be responsible for massive loss
of the state-owned bank.
Yu was sentenced to 144 months in prison in a federal court in Las Vegas in
February 2004 over money laundering, entering the United States with forged
documents, and immigration fraud.
He was returned to China two months later on China's promise to exempt him
from death. Before Yu, China's suspects of severe economic crimes had never been
sent back from the United States through former law procedure.
According to Chinese laws, grave economic crimes could lead to a bullet in
the back of the neck. To avoid death, thousands of corrupt officials have fled
abroad, especially the United States, where they could also lauder the embezzled
funds.
Some law experts in Beijing estimated that Guojun and Chaofan would be
returned to China following the format of Yu's case, but Liu Wenzong said even
they were not sent back the litigation was a “shock" to China's fleeing corrupt
officials.
"It is a huge blow, as they will realize they cannot live at large after the
graft, even if after fleeing abroad," Liu said.
According to an estimate from the Ministry of Commerce, the 4,000-strong
fleeing officials took away more than 50 billion U.S. dollars, few of which have
been recovered.
China has vowed to catch these officials with enhanced international
co-operation.
Liu said China could negotiate with the United States on how to handle the
confiscated funds from Guojun and Chaofan as the litigation went on.
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