China’s central bank said corrupt government officials there have stolen more than $120 billion and fled overseas, mainly to the U.S.
Here’s a story from the BBC.
We talked about this bizarre phenomenon two years ago.
We said, “One defense strategy adopted by some of the Chinese officials accused of corruption is to leave the country. More than 800 have bolted, according to the government, and around 300 have returned. Journalists say the number of international fugitives is a lot higher—at least 1,000 and probably more.”
‘Probably more’ was right. The Chinese government said last week between 16,000 and 18,000 officials and employees of state-owned companies left China with the funds from the mid-1990s until 2008.
They “used offshore bank accounts to smuggle the funds, according to the study posted on the People’s Bank of China website this week but which has since been removed,” the BBC said.
Favorite countries of destination for the crooked officials and the dirty money were the U.S., Australia, Canada, and Holland.
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