US repatriates top bank fraud suspect

XU Chaofan, one of the main suspects in a US$485 million bank embezzlement case, was repatriated back to China yesterday, 17 years after he fled to the United States, the country’s top anti-graft agency said.

The repatriation of Xu, the former chief of Bank of China Kaiping branch in southern Guangdong Province, is an important outcome of law enforcement cooperation against corruption between China and the US, according to a statement on the official website of the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Xu fled to the US in 2001, and the Interpol placed a Red Notice for him. He was arrested by the US in 2003 and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2009.

Xu is the first suspect of a duty-related crime to be repatriated from abroad since the founding of the National Supervisory Commission in March.

The government and Bank of China have so far retrieved more than 2 billion yuan (US$300 million) of the stolen funds, according to the office in charge of fugitive repatriation and asset recovery under the central anti-corruption coordination group.

China will expand cooperation with other countries to knit a tighter net to bring back fugitives from overseas and recover stolen money, not a single corrupt individual on the run will be spared, the statement said.