On the Run: China’s Most Infamous Runaway Millionaires

On the Run: China’s Most Infamous Runaway Millionaires
Jan 28, 2013 By eChinacities.com

Editor’s note: This article was translated and edited from Chinese news website Ifeng, and looks into the stories of some of China’s millionaires who made their fortunes using various illegal methods. All of the people mentioned in the article were either involved in some form of fraud or corruption, and were later caught and sentenced for their crimes.

The 2010 Forbes Rich List shows that China is second only to America in terms of the number of rich individuals. As China’s economy continues to boom, the number of wealthy Chinese is rapidly increasing, with many opting to leave the country. Among the successful however, there are many who played dirty during their climb to the top. Below are the stories of a few infamous rich figures whose use of bribery, swindling, blackmail and other forms of corruption were the source of their rise as well as their eventual downfall.

1) Lai Changxing – the guanxi grafter
After amassing a fortune of 25 billion RMB from profiteering in the oil, property and entertainment industries, Lai Changxing attempted to immigrate to Canada in 1999 to escape punishment for graft, but was rejected twice. He is currently serving a life sentence after being acquitted from the death penalty in 2011. But how did this businessman from a humble background climb to the top? There are of course varying factors, though many have put it down to his impressive networking techniques, which helped him climb the slippery slope of success. The first trick was borrowing money with very high interest rates. Lai Changxing was said to be very good at making friends with the people he dealt with, once borrowing 50,000 RMB from a low-level official with the promise of paying it back at an interest rate of 20%. Upon paying the money back directly into the hands of the official, he discovered his knack for being a gratuitous giver of face. Upon establishing favor with low-level officials, Lai then set his sights higher. When he founded the Yuanhua oil company in 1996, Lai hosted a huge banquet with over 2,000 guests—each guest was presented with a red envelopecontaining 3,000 RMB. During his birthday, Lai performed a similar guanxi pulling manoeuvre, inviting 200 important guests who were each presented with a gift worth over 100,000 RMB. Lai’s next trick was perhaps his most devious. Upon establishing solid relationships with various VIPs, Lai then invited them to his “Red Mansion”, a large building in the outskirts of Xiamen. Upon entering the “Red Mansion”, Lai invited officials to bathe and have sex with women employed in the building. Lai would then film the officials with these women using hidden peep-hole cameras, and stored the recordings for future blackmailing use.

2) Xie Bingfeng – the bank brigand
After stealing more than 50 million RMB during their time working at a Bank of China branch in Nanhai, Xie and his partner in crime Mai Ronghui fled to Thailand in 1998. Mai gave himself up to the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok in 2000, later assisting with the search and arrest of former friend Xie. In May 1998, Xie was unable to pay back extensive loans that he had borrowed from an economic cooperation based in Danzao Town, Nanhai. Xie and Mai, a bank clerk, then worked together to steal large amounts of money from the Nanhai Bank of China branch by withdrawing real money from false deposits. Xie then created five fake bank accounts under the name of Danzao Town Energy Company, with Mai helping him to transfer 50 million RMB of the deposits into the five separate accounts. After withdrawing 7.5 million Hong Kong dollars and almost 1 million RMB, the pair fled to Hong Kong with the plan of heading to Thailand using false passports. After giving himself up, Mai helped locate Xie and the lost money, which was transferred back to the Nanhai bank (though roughly 10 million RMB is still unaccounted for). Upon being sentenced, Mai was given a lengthy jail term due to his surrender but Xie was given the death penalty.

3) Qian Hong – the king of investment fraud
In 1992 at the age of 34, Qian was the owner of two branches of the Kangtai Finance Investment Company, which were located in upmarket hotels in Shanghai. He billed himself as the “Chairman of the Group Board” and began using fraudulently acquired money to transfer his investment company to a block of offices in Shanghai—which also housed various transnational corporations and foreign consulates—thus asserting himself as a powerful figure in the investment scene. To further build his profile, Qian fabricated various aspects of his personal life. Claiming to be a Chinese-Canadian who had previously been a vice-president for huge companies such as Ford, Qian was in truth a middle-school educated research worker who was previously based in Beijing, until he was discharged. Prior to becoming head of the Kangtai Finance Investment Company, Qian’s shady background included being involved with passport forging, gambling, credit card fraud and smuggling. Qian and other key players in the Kangtai group were involved in various crimes such as fraud and prostitute trafficking under the guise of a legitimate investment company that was also operating in Taiwan, South Africa, Central America and Europe. After receiving approval from the Ministry of Foreign Trade in China, Qian was given full freedom to continue with his fraudulent dealings. After amassing a fortune of 500 million RMB from fraud, an arrest warrant was issued for Qian in 1993, though he subsequently fled abroad. It was not until June 6 2002 that Qian was escorted back from China after being found hiding out in Panama.

4) Chen Xin – the country-hopping bank thief
Using his position as an accountant at a Chongqing bank, Chen embezzled funds upwards of 40 million RMB in the space of a year. Using a guise of 29 false identities, Chen managed to transfer his fortune from accounts at home to banks set up in Vietnam and Myanmar, though in 2001 he was arrested and later executed. During his time as an accountant in a Chongqing branch of ICBC, Chen successfully managed to launder money from the branch accounts, secretly pocketing the bank’s assets into his own personal savings. Upon realizing that he had left an important document in the bank potentially proving his crimes, Chen fled to Chengdu. Two days later, he snuck back into Chongqing with the help of a trusted female friend, obtained the document and subsequently fled to Haikou for hiding. After not being able to adjust to life down south, Chen then bounced back to Chengdu, were he put his false identities to use, only allowing himself to go outside at night for fear of being caught.  His escape plan finally came to fruition when he decided to flee to Yunnan during Spring Festival in 2001. After spending a lonely Chinese New Year near the Myanmar border, Chen then abruptly left again, heading across the border to both Myanmar and Vietnam, and then eventually back into China via Guangzhou and Shenzhen. After a harrowing two months on the run carrying large sums of money, Chen finally decided to give himself up, stating that his “mental and spiritual well-being had collapsed completely.”

Source: Ifeng News

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Keywords: China’s runaway millionaires China rich criminals Lai Changxing

11 Comments

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Nov 17, 2013 13:21 Report Abuse

antique

I can help you set up an account in another country and even get a new identity and citizenship

Feb 04, 2013 17:06 Report Abuse

lightend

banks make money from no where (if they have 1 dollar they can lend out 4 dollars and charge interest on all 4 dollars) so if someone takes this money that has been created its not stealing, its liberating the money that isnt really there.

Jan 30, 2013 23:12 Report Abuse

passport168

Banks are greedy

Aug 14, 2016 19:02 Report Abuse

Jeaniacob

It's not only China to have their famous infamous but any country. What makes the difference it he level of dirtiness the evil is pursued and accomplished that as a human you feel sorry to be born in a world with such infamous people. China portrays its levels of cruelty several times in their criminal history but there are other countries who horrified the dignity of the human being with their Holocaust, like Germany. As we live in a world that it's getting evil day by day, the difference that you need to make in your mind is that here or there evil is not so evil. This a way you can survive and find a sort of feeling of safetiness.

Jan 30, 2013 10:34 Report Abuse

DaqingDevil

These are the ones that have been caught and jailed or executed. More interesting to read some stories about the ones still operating or the ones living the high life in the USA and Canada.

Jan 28, 2013 07:56 Report Abuse

passport168

money changes everything !

Aug 14, 2016 19:04 Report Abuse