A Chinese man who embezzled US$485 million from his employer in the biggest bank corruption case in China’s history was yesterday repatriated by US authorities, the country’s anti-graft agency said.
China’s widely publicised “Sky Net” operations to bring home overseas fugitives suspected of corruption and economic crimes are a key plank of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) sweeping campaign to eradicate graft.
PRESSURED TO RETURN
Xu Chaofan (許超凡), a former president of a sub-branch of the Bank of China in Kaiping, Guangdong Province, fled to the US in 2001, but was detained in 2003 following the cooperation of law enforcement officials in the two countries.
He was convicted of the crime and sentenced to a 25-year prison term in the US in 2009 and had been serving his time there, until he accepted repatriation following pressure by US and Chinese authorities, the Chinese Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a statement.
More than 2 billion yuan (US$300.5 million) of the amount Xu stole has been recovered, the agency added.
LIMITED SUCCESS
China has turned up the pressure on graft suspects overseas by asking families to contact them and encourage them to return, as well as by releasing personal details, such as their addresses.
However, it has had limited success in securing cooperation from Western countries such as Australia, Canada and the US, where many of the most wanted live, largely because of what those governments see as a lack of transparency and due process in China’s judicial system.
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