17,000 corrupt officials smuggled $124bn out of China

A report released by the People’s Bank of China said that about 17,000 Communist Party officials took US$123.6 billion out of the country between the mid-1990s and 2008, the Financial Times reported. The most popular destination for the officials and their ill-gotten gains was the US, followed by Canada, Australia and the Netherlands. Many who could not obtain visas to those countries often went to Africa, Latin America or eastern Europe as a stopping point along the way. Officials laundered money via casinos, money transfers to friends and families or doctored documents on overseas trade and investment. The report also said that most officials who fled worked in “sensitive industries,” such as finance, state-owned companies, construction, transportation and tax, investment and government trade departments.