The US might deport to China the ex-wife of a fugitive Chinese official indicted on money laundering and immigration fraud charges, a US prosecutor on Wednesday said.
The US Department of Justice on Tuesday indicted Qiao Jianjun (喬建軍), the former director of a government grain storage facility in central China, and his ex-wife, Zhao Shilan (趙世蘭), accusing them of funneling stolen money into the US and fraudulently obtaining US visas.
Zhao was arrested in the US state of Washington and held without bail while Qiao remains at large.
Los Angeles Assistant US Attorney Ronald Cheng (程樂其) said one option was for Zhao to be deported for violating immigration law by falsely claiming to be married to Qiao and lying about the source of their money to obtain a US visa.
Zhao could face deportation if convicted of the immigration charges to get around the lack of an extradition treaty between the US and China, the prosecutor said.
“It is certainly a possible consequence that she could be removed back to China,” Cheng said in an interview.
US officials said they do not know Qiao’s whereabouts, but if caught, he might also face deportation.
“We look forward to our side of the case coming forward as events progress,” Zhao’s attorney, Kirk Davis, said.
Zhao’s first court appearance is today.
The indictment, unsealed in Los Angeles, states the couple bought a home in the Seattle suburb of Newcastle with approximately US$500,000 of laundered money gleaned from fraudulent transactions related to a huge grain storehouse in Henan Province, where Qiao served as director from 1998 to 2011.
US law enforcement agents traveled to China to interview witnesses and gather intelligence before indicting the couple, in a case demonstrating growing cooperation between the US and China over the hunting down of corrupt Chinese fugitives in the US.
In Beijing, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei (洪磊) yesterday said that the Qiao case was one of the five most important cases the two countries had agreed to work on together.
“There are no safe harbors in the world for corrupt elements like Qiao Jianjun,” Hong told reporters.
The Chinese government has launched a campaign, dubbed Operation Fox Hunt, to hunt down officials and businessmen who have absconded, often taking their ill-gotten gains with them, part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) battle against deep-seated graft.
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