China tracks 800bn yuan in embezzled money
Authorities in China have been doubling their efforts since April to track down illicit assets exported overseas.
The People’s Bank of China, the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange have been working together in this operation.
Chinese authorities have so far handled 92 major cases, involving over 800 billion yuan ($126 billion) of embezzled money transferred through underground banks and offshore companies.
This is part of the wider “Operation Skynet” operation, which aims to hunt down corrupt officials who have fled abroad.
Li Mingzhao, an official at the Ministry of Public security heading an anti-money laundry team, says underground banks pose a great threat to China’s anti-corruption efforts and to national security.
“Underground banking provides money laundering channels for crimes such as illegal fund-raising, pyramid scheme and telecommunication frauds, sometimes making it impossible to recover the economic losses. Some underground banks even provide money-raising channels for terrorist groups, which threatens our national security. At the same time, some underground banks also enable corrupt officials to transfer their assets abroad.”
Due to a lack of supervision and control, underground banks have been rampant in China over the past decade, causing disturbances on the financial and capital markets in China.
Ouyang Xiong, Director of Supervision and Inspection Department of State Administration of Foreign Exchange, says underground banks have a negative impact on the wider economy.
“Both Capital inflows and capital outflows through underground banks will affect the interest rate level, the exchange rate level and the economic balance of our country. And the whole economic order of our country will be impacted as we are not able to monitor the capital flow of underground banks.”
According to regulations, the amount of money an individual can move out of China should be less than US$50,000 per year. However, it’s been reported that some people can remit millions of dollars at one time through underground banks.
Director of Finance and Securities Institute at Renmin University of China Wu Xiaoqiu says combating financial crimes like money laundering and underground banks will help maintain current economic order and development.
“Underground banking is very destructive to China’s financial system. It should be strictly controlled. Without a developed, sound, open and international financial market, China’s efforts to build a modern financial system based on the financial market will be in vain. The sustainable development of China’s economy will also be influenced. ”
Last year, China launched a campaign targeting suspects in economic crimes, many of them corrupt officials of government departments and state-owned enterprises. In Fox Hunt 2014, 680 fugitives were repatriated to China.
Following Fox Hunt 2015, China launched a campaign named “Skynet” this April to capture corrupt officials who fled abroad. As of late June, more than 260 fugitives have been returned to China from more than 30 countries and regions, including the United States, Canada and Australia.
