Claiming to have ＂absolute authority＂, a corrupt official who once lived next door to Bill Gates was arrested abroad overnight.
CCTV News:On January 13th, Qiao Jianjun’s name appeared in the fourth episode "Hand in Hand" of the documentary feature film "Red Wanted" of anti-corruption international.
Qiao Jianjun, No.3 of "100 Red Cross Personnel", was the former director of the warehouse directly under Zhoukou, Henan Province.
The "Shuoshu" of the National Granary
China National Grain Storage Corporation is a central enterprise directly managed by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. It has set up 24 branches nationwide, covering 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government.
According to media reports, Qiao Jianjun has been the director of the direct warehouse of China Grain Storage Zhoukou for a long time, and has established "absolute authority". The insider revealed that "the key positions are all his people. Whoever does not obey, he will replace others through various methods."
In November 2011, Qiao Jianjun fled with more than 300 million yuan, and the procuratorate of Henan Province immediately intervened in the investigation.
Later, it was found out by the procuratorate of Henan Province that Qiao Jianjun colluded with grain merchants, allowing them to sell the reserve converted grain in the grain depot, or falsely reported the purchase quantity of "entrusted grain", thus defrauding the state grain fund by more than 700 million yuan.
Qiao Jianjun directly transferred part of the stolen money to his designated personal account, and then transferred it abroad through underground banks. Over the years, the money he transferred overseas has been found to be over 100 million yuan.
In the process of investigating Qiao Jianjun’s case, the Henan Provincial Procuratorate has continuously received reports about China Grain Storage Henan Branch, and the more clues it has found, the more people have been put on file for investigation. Among them, there are 81 cadres and employees of China Grain Storage Henan Branch, including Li Changxuan, former general manager of China Grain Storage Henan Branch, Yang Hongjie, former deputy general manager, and 26 department-level cadres directly under the Grain Depot.
The "thirteen caves of the sly rabbit" used to be neighbors with Bill Gates.
In the feature film, Qiao Jianjun’s escape was carefully planned long ago. A few years before he fled, Qiao Jianjun, his ex-wife Zhao Shilan and their two children had secretly obtained American green cards.
On the way to escape, Qiao Jianjun can be described as a country and region that tried its best to escape or transfer assets, involving Hong Kong, China and Singapore in Asia; America, Canada, Panama, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Dutch island of St. Martin, Europe, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Cyprus and Sweden.
Although Zhao Shilan and Qiao Jianjun are divorced, they have a lot of common interests.
Qiao Jianjun’s ex-wife’s real estate in the United States (video screenshot)
In Seattle, USA, Zhao Shilan owns two properties. One of the properties covers an area of more than 900 square meters, with a construction area of about 340 square meters. There are 4 bedrooms alone. This house is close to Highway 405 in Seattle, with convenient transportation. The neighborhood is very quiet, and there are few cars coming in and out. It belongs to the rich area in Seattle. Seen from the west of the house, Paul Allen (one of the founders of Microsoft) lives in Mercer Island, and Bill Gates lives in the northern Medina area.
Zhao Shilan and Qiao Jianjun were the investment immigrants who bought real estate in those years, falsely claiming that the funds came from legal income, but in fact they came from Qiao Jianjun’s corruption. Many of Qiao Jianjun’s assets transferred overseas are in her name, and the American green card was also obtained by her assistance to Qiao Jianjun by deception.
In the United States, it has been found that Qiao Jianjun and Zhao Shilan have purchased four properties and three commercial properties, while Qiao Jianjun’s assets are far more than just in the United States. He has traveled to thirteen countries and regions, and he will make investments in each country and region, including real estate, restaurants, hotels, tourism, resorts, farms and so on.
In addition, Qiao Jianjun obtained a passport of Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean under the pseudonym of Feng Li. His bank accounts and investments in many countries and regions are hidden behind the false identity of Feng Li.
The first fugitive official from China prosecuted by the United States.
In March, 2015, Qiao Jianjun and Zhao Shilan were formally charged by federal prosecutors in California for immigration fraud and money laundering. This is the first time that the United States has prosecuted a corrupt official who fled China after China announced the "Fox Hunt" campaign. In the same month, Zhao Shilan was arrested in the United States. But Qiao Jianjun fled to other countries in 2012.
Qiao Jianjun’s ex-wife Zhao Shilan (Source: Xinhua International)
Court documents show that Qiao Jianjun and Zhao Shilan went to the United States through investment immigration programs. Previously, Zhao Shilan lied to the US Immigration Bureau that she would invest 500,000 US dollars in American enterprises, but the investigation results of the US authorities showed that all the relevant documents provided by Zhao Shilan were false, and her 500,000 US dollars were not invested in any projects at all. In fact, the money was used to buy a house in the suburbs of Seattle, and the source of the money was related to a money laundering transaction in Zhoukou Grain Depot.
In addition, they are also suspected of fraudulent marriage. Qiao Jianjun had divorced Zhao Shilan when she came to the United States, but when Zhao Shilan applied for investment immigration, she lied that they were still married.
Prosecutors said that Zhao Shilan was suspected of money laundering, cheating US immigration officials and violating immigration laws. If the court convicted Zhao Shilan on this charge, he might be sentenced to 30 years in prison.
At first, Zhao Shilan hoped that the lawyer could help him get rid of the crime, and made it clear that he did not plead guilty at the first trial. But after many trials, in the face of conclusive evidence, she finally pleaded guilty. After the case is concluded, she will be sentenced to prison and many houses in the United States will be confiscated. As the case needs to be concluded together with Qiao Jianjun’s arrest, the United States also wanted Qiao Jianjun all over the world.
On the day of the arrest, I was bald all night.
China and the United States have joined hands to pursue the case, but Qiao Jianjun’s continuous flight between many countries has brought great difficulties to the arrest.
While pursuing the pursuit, the pursuit is also going on simultaneously. Qiao Jianjun’s overseas assets are frozen as soon as they are discovered. Up to now, the frozen assets have exceeded 100 million yuan. China has cooperated with nearly 20 countries and regions on this case to varying degrees, and many countries and regions in America, Europe and Asia are investigating and recovering his assets.
Finally, there is a clue that Qiao Jianjun is in Sweden. This time, he didn’t get away with it.
In August 2018, Qiao Jianjun was arrested in Sweden. On the day he was arrested, he went bald overnight.
Looking back on his 7-year escape life, although he has painstakingly managed to buy assets in more than a dozen countries, he has not been able to enjoy any of them safely.
Mr. Gorts, Senior Prosecutor of Swedish National Anti-Corruption Bureau, said in an interview that Qiao Jianjun was also suspected of economic crimes in Sweden and had been investigated.
At present, although there is no extradition treaty between China and Sweden, China has made an extradition request to Sweden, and Sweden is conducting relevant investigations.
Zhou Congyuan, a staff member of the International Cooperation Bureau of the State Supervision Commission of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, who is in charge of investigating the case, said: "If this case is successfully handled, I think it should be a textbook case. The biggest feature of this case is our global pursuit and global cooperation, because anti-corruption has become a consensus of the international community, and no country will affect its reputation and interests for corruption. "