On November 20, Shanghai’s foreign affairs inspection work committee revealed that, at present, inspection agencies have been chasing after 13 officials who fled overseas. These officials are suspected of being involving in crimes involving over 100 million yuan (US$12.5 million).
According to a report by China News, of these 13 criminal suspects being pursued through the Internet, nine were involved in corruption; three were involved in misuse of funds, and one was involved in bribery. Outside analysis suspects the number of people and amount of money involved far surpasses 100 million yuan.
According to East Day News, since 2001, the Shanghai procuratorial agency, with the aid of Hong Kong and Macao areas, have handled 57 cases. Five suspects who fled overseas were captured, and three of them either pled guilty or appeared before court. The money involved amounted to 42.55 million yuan ($5.3 million).
Official documents show that, since the end of 2004, there have been at least 500 known economic crimes with suspects who fled overseas and corrupt officials make up the majority. The money involved in those cases amount to 70 billion yuan ($8.75 billion).
At present, only several dozen corrupt officials have been captured. They include Chen Manxiong, the former executives of an industry development company in Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province. After they diverted 700 million yuan ($87.5 million) of government funds, they fled to Thailand for five years, and finally returned to mainland China because of temporary extradition.
According to calculations, during the past ten years, billions of yuan have been taken out of China through various ways, of which a great amount is state property that officials have embezzled.
