US alleges Vancouver-area homes part of China money-laundering scheme

Latest: Corruption and Money Laundering.

US alleges Vancouver-area homes part of China money-laundering scheme Times Colonist Earlier this month, Chinese prosecutors, acting as part of the anti-corruption crackdown launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping, gave the U.S. State . China money-laundering scheme includes Vancouver-area homes, U.S. says A condo and a house were bought outright in Richmond and White Rock, then mortgaged for $1.1 million. In early 2012, a few months after she left China for a new life as an immigrant investor in the United States, Shi Lan Zhao flew to Metro Vancouver, bought a numbered B.C. company and began searching for properties in which to invest. Flush with money that she and her ex-husband, Jianjun Qiao, had moved from China through banks in China, Hong Kong and Canada, Zhao first bought a Richmond condo, paying for it outright. A few months later, on a return trip, she bought a five-bedroom White Rock home, also paying for it outright. Zhao, 51, moved easily between B.C. and her home outside Bellevue in Washington state, making at least 20 trips since 2011. She became familiar to real estate agents and people at the Vancouver company that managed her properties and the banks where she and Qiao kept accounts. But U.S. and Chinese investigators now suspect the money for the Metro homes purchases came from an embezzlement scheme that was just one part of a massive corruption and bribery operation that nearly crippled the China Grain Reserves Corporation, also known as Sinograin. From 1998 until mid-2011, Qiao, also 51, was director of Sinograin’s Zhoukou Municipal Grain Reserve in Henan province. After he disappeared, officials discovered what they allege was a bribery and corruption program that in Henan alone involved more than 110 officials and the misappropriation of $114 million US. Qiao was accused of embezzling $50 million and spiriting much of it through a number of bank accounts with fictitious names. His boss, Li Changxuan, the chairman of Sinograin’s Henan branch, was convicted in China of accepting $2.3 million in bribes and was sentenced to life in prison. -  Read More;..