The United States is proving to be a destination of choice among corrupt officials in China who have smuggled billions of dollars out of their country.

 

A Chinese study carried out by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2008, but only just released, revealed that thousands of officials and company employees have siphoned at least $123 billion out of China since the mid-1990s. Those with high-ranking positions tended to move their stolen funds to Western countries like the U.S., Canada, Australia and the Netherlands. Lower-ranking crooks smuggled their financial treasures to nearby countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Mongolia and Russia.

 

The report, “Investigation on the Asset Transfer Routes Used by Corrupt Officials and the Corresponding Surveillance Methods,” estimated that between 16,000 and 18,000 Chinese have smuggled out monies. Their professions ranged from government employees to police officers to judges to senior corporate managers, although the biggest crooks were high-level executives of large enterprises and people in charge of specific projects. Their methods of moving the stolen funds included cash smuggling, foreign-exchange trading, credit card expenditures, drug trafficking, counterfeiting, and more.

 

It is not yet clear what the Chinese embezzlers did with their money once they got it into the United States.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Report: Corrupt Chinese Officials Take $123 Billion Overseas (by James T. Areddy, Wall Street Journal)

Destination America for China's Corrupt Officials (by Xu Fang and Maggie Zhang, Shanghai Daily)

Capital Flight Accompanies Corruption in China, Bank Warns (by Leo Chen & Gary Pansey,

Epoch Times)