China’s Anti-Corruption Drive Gets Help From U.S. With Indictment of Former Official, Ex-Wife

Mar 19, 2015 01:08 PM EDT

(Photo : Reuters) Replicas of R$100,00 banknotes are hung on a clothesline during a protest of the national union of prosecutors against money laundering in Brazil, at the Esplanade of Ministries in Brasilia March 18, 2015. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino (BRAZIL - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

The U.S. Justice Department unsealed on Tuesday in Los Angeles the indictment of Qiao Jianjun, ex-director of a large grain storage facility in central China. The indictment is seen as Washington cooperating with Beijing's anti-corruption campaign.

According to the indictment, Qiao ran a long-term scheme of fraudulent transactions that earned him $3.7 million. Zhao was instrumental in transferring $900,000 to the U.S., which they partly used to buy a house in Seattle.

Like Us on Facebook

The two nations have agreed to cooperate when it comes to cross-border crimes since China wants to ensure that corrupt officials who escaped to the U.S. would be made to answer for their crimes. For its part, the U.S. said it does not want to be a haven of those kind of people.

Zhao Shilan, the former wife of Qian, was also indicted on money laundering charges. The department noted that she did not tell the truth about her marriage status as part of the couple's grand scheme to hide the stolen money in the U.S.

Zhao is detained in the U.S. and held without bail. Kirk Davis, her lawyer, welcomed the unsealing of the indictment because it would give her the opportunity to tell her side.

While Qiao has fled China and has been in the U.S. since 2011, the DOJ admits it does not know his location or if he has a lawyer.

But despite the agreement to cooperate on cross-border crimes, the lack of an extradition treaty has limited cooperation on both sides to a piecemeal basis.

The Wall Street Journal reports that American law enforcement officers went to Henan Province, where Qiao was based, to interview witnesses. Aside from the corruption element that Chinese officials are accusing Qiao of, U.S. officials said the case includes money laundering and immigration fraud, said Ronald Cheng, assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.

The immigration fraud angle is their claiming to be still married even if they divorced in 2001 so Zhao could claim Qiao as spouse since she has an EB-5 investor's visa.