China's Anti-Corruption Drive

[greengiraffe]

Its all but a connection con game...

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/26...-godfather

“I don't trust society to protect us, I have no intention of placing my fate in the hands of men whose only qualification is that they managed to con a block of people to vote for them.”
― Mario Puzo, The Godfather

In both these cases, the people don't even have the freedom of choosing the leaders, hence choices are non-existence so make it all more difficult.

Indonesia society is forever corrupted, a deep rooted culture otherwise why would the Rupiah be persistently depreciating...

GG

[sgd]

depends on country gov if more hands on then more strict and less freedoms.

indonesia g takes a "laissez faire" approach reason is because they are such a big country with a lot of illiterate poor. If their g takes a tighter rein maybe there could be less corruption and religious extremism but they end up with a big responsibility to feed these poor people already giving fuel subsidy is a huge financial headache for their gov and they trying to stop it.

we cannot compare our small population to other countries around the region here, small population is easy to manage.

[BlueKelah]

China Property Officials Felled by Love of Haute Couture Then Outed in Govt Media

While China has for years had competing lists of the country’s biggest billionaires, Xi Jinping’s high profile anti-corruption campaign now seems to promoting a list of the country’s most elegantly corrupt officials.

The record of bureaucrats brought low by a love of luxury goods has been featured in China’s state-run media in recent days, and officials responsible for real estate deals appear to be leading the pack.

Chongqing Official Boasted of RMB 1M Suit Collection
Making the top of the list was former Chongqing land office official Ding Meng, who turned his right to decide how relocated homeowners were compensated for their property into a wardrobe of more than 100 fashionable suits and 200 pairs of high end shoes.

Upon being arrested by authorities for taking more than RMB 161 million ($26.3 million) in bribes, Ding boasted that all of his suits cost more than RMB 10,000 ($1634) each. The deputy head of the Shapingba land office also sported among his collection of finery a pair of RMB 10,000 Gucci shoes.

Now in jail serving a 13 year prison term for corruption, Ding’s wardrobe is confined to a simple jailhouse orange.
Liaoning Bureaucrat Brought Down by RMB 176k Handbag
Jiang Runli Chongqing

Liaoning’s Jiang Runli will find it hard to make use of her handbag collection during her life sentence

Second on the list of high style fallen comrades is another property market regulator, Jiang Runli of Fushun, Liaoning province.

A lifelong public servant, Jiang worked her way up through the ranks of the property and construction departments, variously serving in the City Planning Bureau, City Construction Bureau and Planning Design Institute.

According to court documents, Jiang’s favorite hobby was to go shopping in Shenyang’s New World Shopping Mall, accompanied by female staff from real estate developers. Apparently Jiang’s greatest weakness was handbags, and she accumulated more than 200, including a Louis Vuitton model that cost over RMB 176,000 ($28,800).

Although she became known as the “Queen of LV,” at her trial Jiang was revealed as having enjoyed a broad range of tastes that included housing, cash and education in Singapore for her children.

Read more here

=====================

Now we know why SG Gamen decided to "cool" property so much

[greengiraffe]

Sydney mansion bought by Chinese billionaire for $39m

Angus Grigg, Shanghai and Samantha Hutchinson
540 words
5 Nov 2014
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Copyright 2014. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.

The Chinese billionaire named as the buyer of a $39 million Sydney mansion has strong connections to the ­Communist Party, including the brother of former Premier Wen Jiabao.

A company associated with property developer Xu Jiayin, is reported to have bought Villa de Mare in Point Piper last month, setting a new record for a non-waterfront house in Sydney.

Mr Xu's is China's 15th richest ­person, according to the Hurun Report, and has an estimated wealth of ­$7.6 billion.

This is mainly derived from the Guangzhou-based property developer Evergrande, which the 56-year-old chairs.

The company has expanded quickly over the last decade to become one of China's biggest apartment builders.

But critics have long argued that its rapid expansion was partially due to the presence of Mr Wen's younger brother, Wen Jiahong, on its share register.

"Wen Jiahong is the real boss of Evergrande," the author Yu Jie told Germany's Der Spigel magazine in 2012. Mr Yu, who has published a book on the former premier and his family, said the company had drawn heavily on it links with Mr Wen during a time when he controlled the State Council – China's cabinet.

In a posting on Twitter, Mr Yu said the younger Mr Wen had purchased a 16 per cent stake in Evergrande for 37.5 million yuan ($6.8 million) in 2001.

Eight years later this shareholding was worth 11.5 billion yuan when the company listed in Hong Kong, ­according to Mr Yu.

The Wen family have been embroiled in a series of corruption and nepotism scandals in China over recent years, after the New York Times reported the clan had accumulated $US2.7 billion in "hidden riches".

Calls to the Mr Xu's office at Evergrande went unanswered. The Sydney Morning Herald reported Tuesday that Golden Fast Foods, a company linked to Evergrande bought the house.

Sydney's Point Piper has attracted a growing community of well-heeled Chinese entrepreneurs.

Zeng Wei, the son of China's former vice-president Zeng Qinghong, owns 73 Wolseley Road, where he and wife Jiang Mei are in the process of building a modern home by architect Gergely and Pinter. The princeling spent $32.4 million six years ago to secure the home known as Craig-y-Mor, which businessmen including Chris Corrigan, Rene Rivkin and Ben Tilley formerly owned. Demolition works began in May. The family is expected to move back into the new home by 2015.

Other Chinese purchasers in the area include chairman of global textiles group Shandong Ruyi, Qiu Yafu, who paid around $34 million in May 2013 for a home known as the "Bang and Olufsen" house on Wolseley Crescent.

Mr Qui is the major shareholder in Queensland's, Cubbie Station.

Secretive Chinese businessman Xiuzhen Ding also made a splash in May last year when he paid around $53 million for publisher Deke Miskin's home Wunulla Road, known as Altona.

While little is known about who bought the home under Chaimovich Investments, there are reports children of Chinese officials have stayed at the home since the family moved in.


Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited

Document AFNR000020141104eab50000j

[greengiraffe]

China seeks corruption treaty deal
PUBLISHED: 6 HOURS 39 MINUTES AGO | UPDATE: 0 HOUR 0 MINUTES AGO

China seeks corruption treaty deal
The Abbott government is considering a treaty deal to make it easier for corrupt officials to be returned to China.  Photo: Bloomberg
PHILLIP COOREY Chief political correspondent
Beijing | The Abbott government is ­considering an extradition treaty with China to help Beijing repatriate corrupt officials and confiscate their assets.

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said the treaty would be part of the ­Beijing declaration on anti-corruption that Australia and other nations in the region will sign at this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation meeting.

“China has requested one and it’s under consideration, with a number of other countries,” she told The ­Aus­tralian Financial Review. “It’s a ­Chinese operation in pursuit of Chinese ­economic fugitives abroad.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping has launched Operation Fox Hunt to track down officials overseas and ­confiscate assets. Australia is a popular haven. Last week the Financial Review revealed the families of two senior government ­officials had questionable business and real estate investments in Sydney.

Mr Xi wants the signing of the declaration to be a centrepiece of ­Tuesday’s leaders’ APEC summit.

Ms Bishop said all leaders were set to sign.

TREATY A SIGNIFICANT MOVE
In a significant move as Australia tries to finalise a free trade deal with China, Ms Bishop supported a separate Chinese plan for a new regional trade group, despite US government ­opp­osition to the Chinese-backed Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP).

Ms Bishop, in China since Friday for APEC meetings, said if China wanted someone extradited from ­Australia, it was possible but difficult under a United Nations convention.

It would be easier under a bilateral extradition treaty, she said.

She said the APEC declaration would complement the corruption component of the G20 agenda in ­Brisbane.

“It’s an initiative that’s been raised here at APEC and it feeds into the G20 agenda,” she said.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott was to arrive in Beijing on Sunday night for APEC. On Monday, he will meet US President Barack Obama, and there is a tentative agreement to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. By Sunday, no meeting time had been finalised.

MEETING ‘BENEFICIAL’
“Russia and Australia agree that it would be beneficial to meet during APEC. Both countries are trying to find a mutually agreeable time for the meeting to occur,” Mr Abbott’s office said.

Mr Abbott is also likely to discuss with Mr Xi outstanding issues on the Australia-China Free Trade Agreement which he wants to sign with Mr Xi in Canberra next week.

The APEC meeting has seen tensions between China and the United States over China’s plan to speed up the long-debated FTAAP, based on the 21-member APEC group, when the US backs its own rival Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation regional group that excludes China.

Ms Bishop said Australia supports both proposals, as well as a third regional scheme – the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership – saying they complemented each other. “We back the free trade agreement China has brought to APEC. It’s entirely consistent with our position on free and open trade and trade liberalisation.”

THREE SCHEMES COULD MERGE
Australia did not support US efforts to mute talks on the Chinese proposal at APEC.

Although the US slowed the advance of the Chinese proposal on Saturday to give precedence to the TPP, Ms Bishop said the three schemes could be merged and that would eventually happen.

The lead-up to APEC had been clouded by Australia siding with the US and Japan to reject a Chinese request to become a founding ember of its ­proposed $US50 billion Asian ­In­frastructure Investment Bank.

Ms Bishop said the AIIB featured prominently in her talks with her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi. She said China was keen to address Australian concerns and would continue to lobby Canberra to join. She was confident the issue could be resolved and would not affect final FTA negotiations.

“We discussed a whole range of issues in relation to the AIIB and I ex­plained why Australia hadn’t yet agreed to the terms of the MoU,” she said.

“He understood. He said they would come back in terms of what Australia was looking for in terms of governance and structure and the like, and he said there was no pressure, there was no ­particular timetable but they would be keen to keep talking. I made it clear that we hoped it would be more inclusive and that ­countries such as Japan, Korea and the United States would be able to join. It was not a negative end to the discussion at all.”

The cabinet was divided on the AIIB, with Ms Bishop and Mr Abbott siding with the US, while Treasurer Joe Hockey and Trade Minister Andrew Robb were eager to join.

Australia cited concerns over the lack of governance, security and transparency surrounding the proposal, and believed it was not a multinational organisation. The US and Japan believe China would use the AIIB to influence the region and rival the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank, which are dominated by the US and Japan.

The Australian Financial Review

BY PHILLIP COOREY
Phillip Coorey
Phillip is the AFR's chief political correspondent, based in our Canberra bureau.

@PhillipCoorey

Stories by Phillip Coorey

[greengiraffe]

Operation Fox Hunt nabs more fugitives
FERGUS RYAN DECEMBER 02, 2014 3:15PM

Over 150 suspects have surrendered to authorities ahead of a December 1 deadline for people suspected of corruption who have fled overseas reports the Beijing News.

According to the paper, at least 335 people have been arrested as part of the international campaign dubbed “Operation Fox Hunt” including at least 154 people who have handed themselves in.

Chinese President Xi Jinping launched Operation Fox Hunt in July as an extension to his far-reaching domestic campaign to root out corruption.

Authorities offered an olive branch to fugitives fleeing corruption charges, saying if they returned and plead guilty by December 1, they would receive a reduced punishment.

According to China’s central bank, over 18,000 officials have made off with more than $US123 billion since the mid-1990s.

[greengiraffe]

Chinese 'agents' hunt down top fugitive in Australia
ExclusiveAngus Grigg and Lisa Murray
620 words
21 Mar 2015
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Copyright 2015. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.

Shanghai | A senior Chinese government official has indicated for the first time that China's most famous fugitive is hiding in Australia, and said Beijing will increase pressure this year to have him returned.

The comments from the party secretary of Yunnan Province, Li Jiheng, come as China's top anti-corruption body said it had stationed "agents" in 31 countries around the world. They have been tasked with "persuading" fugitives to return home and working with local authorities to build cases against those who may have broken immigration laws or laundered money.

Fresh details of the high-profile campaign, known as Operation Fox Hunt, were revealed on the website of China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) earlier this week.

The site said China has 62 anti-corruption agents working in embassies and consulates around the world and had established "co-operation mechanisms" with the US, Canada and Australia. Australia has regularly been named as a top three destination for corrupt Chinese officials, who are attracted by the strong legal system and the lack of an extradition treaty with Beijing.

Rumours have circulated for years that China's most famous fugitive, Gao Yan, the former head of State Grid, had fled to Australia after pilfering millions of dollars earmarked for power projects. But this has never been officially confirmed.

Yunnan's Mr Li was asked about Mr Gao during this month's National People's Congress in Beijing and gave a surprisingly frank answer.

"China will increase efforts in getting him back and will ask assistance from Australia," Mr Li said.

AFR Weekend previously reported Mr Gao's son, Gao Xinyuan, had registered companies in Australia and was involved in a Sydney development.

The elder Mr Gao, a famously extravagant Party official, has been linked to corruption as far back as 1995 when he headed the tobacco-rich Yunnan Province. He has also been accused of awarding power projects to his son while running State Grid.

A state-linked academic, who helped draft China's international legal co-operation agreements, said Australia would be a major focus of Operation Fox Hunt this year. "The focus last year was on nearby or neighbouring countries," said Huang Feng, director of the Institute for International Criminal Law at Beijing Normal University. "For this year the focus is shifting to the popular destinations for corrupt officials like the US and Australia."

The lack of extradition treaties with the US, Canada and Australia was often seen as a major hurdle for China's efforts to pursue fugitives in these countries. However, special requests can still be made under the United Nations Anti-Corruption Convention.

And on its website, the CCDI indicated it had found ways to work around the lack of a treaty. It said some officials had been "persuaded" to return home, including one from the US in December last year; others had handed over their assets voluntarily.

Chinese agents have also alerted local law enforcement officials to immigration breaches or provided evidence to show assets were purchased using the proceeds of crime.

The Australian Federal Police would not comment on whether Chinese agents were stationed in Australia or if it was working with them.

"Australia and China have developed a productive law enforcement relationship, including in the areas of mutual assistance in criminal matters and police-to-police assistance," the AFP said. "This co-operation takes place in accordance with Australian law."

The Australian Crime Commission issued a near identical statement.

Earlier this month the Financial Review reported the commission was targeting foreigners buying high-end Australian property, as part of an international investigation into money laundering.


Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited

Document AFNR000020150320eb3l0000k

[greengiraffe]

Top fund manager nabbed in China graft probe

   Xu Xiang was apprehended by police in a dramatic highway arrest on Sunday. The owner of one of China's most successful investment firms is being held for suspected insider trading.PHOTO: SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

  [url=http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/top-fund-manager-nabbed-in-china-graft-probe#][/url]
HONG KONG • He has been called China's Carl Icahn. But the billionaire owner of one of the country's most successful investment firms is now the latest suspect in a broadening crackdown on corruption in the financial industry.
The fund manager, Xu Xiang, nicknamed Big Xu, was apprehended in dramatic Hollywood fashion, worthy of a spy movie.
As the police closed in, the highway patrol sealed off the 35.4km Hangzhou Bay Bridge for more than 30 minutes and eventually apprehended Xu near the exit late on Sunday morning, reported state media.

The government offered scant details on the arrest. "Xu Xiang and others are suspected of insider trading and other offences and are in criminal detention," said a brief statement on the official Xinhua news agency.
The Chinese government has been extending its anti-corruption probe, moving more aggressively into the financial industry. Mr Wang Qishan, the Communist Party official in charge of the crackdown on graft, announced last month that his Central Commission for Discipline Inspection would begin inquiries into the financial companies.
The corruption crackdown has been a cornerstone of the tenure of President Xi Jinping. Since Mr Xi rose to power in 2013, the Chinese government has arrested more than 100,000 officials, executives and others in a far-flung investigation that has touched many big industries, including oil companies, car manufacturers and electric utilities.
Scrutiny of the financial companies has been amplified by the stock market turmoil in recent months. After riding a boom for over a year, the industry is now at the centre of the storm, as Beijing looks into what went wrong.
An official at the main stock market overseer confessed in late August to insider trading, forgery and accepting bribes. An assistant chairman at the agency, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, is under investigation.
The authorities are also looking into a number of executives at Citic Securities, the brokerage arm of the biggest state-owned financial conglomerate, including its president Cheng Boming. The investigation centres on insider trading.
In recent years, Xu was at the top of the financial game. His funds at Zexi Investment, based in Shanghai, outperformed almost every other investment vehicle in China. His record of taking minority stakes in companies and pushing for shareholder rights, like higher dividends, earned him comparisons with Mr Icahn in China's financial press.
Xu and his relatives have a combined fortune of US$2.2 billion (S$3.1 billion), according to the Shanghai-based Hurun Report.
As the rest of the market stumbled this year, Xu seemed to defy the slump. Although the Shanghai Composite Index has risen less than 3 per cent so far this year, the Zexi No. 1 Fund, which works with a subsidiary of the state-owned conglomerate China Resources, gained 323 per cent as of last Friday; it has risen 3,270 per cent since its inception in 2010. The Zexi No. 3 Fund has gained 382 per cent this year and 3,945 per cent since 2010, according to figures on the firm's website, which were obtained before it was taken down on Monday morning.
The firm's performance was the subject of intense market speculation in September, when a post on social media accused it of manipulation. At the time, Zexi said the accusations were "fabrications from nowhere and malicious attacks".
Separately, a former senior Communist official and ally of former security chief Zhou Yongkang was sentenced to 12 years in prison for corruption yesterday, the Nanchang People's Intermediate Court said on a verified social media account.
Li Chongxi, who headed a political advisory body in Sichuan, was convicted of taking bribes of about 11 million yuan (S$2.4 million). Li is the latest of Zhou's former allies to be jailed under Mr Xi's sweeping anti-corruption drive, which some have described as a political purge.
NEW YORK TIMES, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

[greengiraffe]

China shares crackdown widens as arrests, investigations spread

• SHEN HONG, WEI GU
  
• THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
  
• NOVEMBER 13, 2015 12:51PM
  

[Image: 686987-e1cdd898-89aa-11e5-a54c-e349400b8874.jpg]
The Shenzhen Stock Exchange building. Source: Supplied
[b]China’s crackdown on alleged misdeeds by traders escalated dramatically in recent days, as officials went after one of the country’s best-known fund managers and then members of his family.[/b]
In the past 10 days, authorities have gone from detaining Xu Xiang, who runs Shanghai-based Zexi Investment, for alleged insider trading and stock-price manipulation, to freezing stockholdings valued at more than $1 billion owned by his parents.
Mr Xu’s detention marked a milestone in Beijing’s far-reaching crackdown on perceived fraud and irregularities in the wake of the summer’s stockmarket crash. Authorities have repeatedly railed against short sellers and other traders, alleging “malicious intent” that jeopardises the country’s financial security.
Their targets include senior securities regulatory officials, the head of the nation’s top brokerage, star private-equity traders and a financial journalist.
While the campaign — which some in the market have dubbed “kill the chicken to scare the monkey” after a Chinese proverb — has gone some way to reassuring the tens of millions of retail investors who dominate share trading in China, it has sent a chilling message to asset managers and other financial-industry professionals, many of whom are now consulting with lawyers and changing how they do business.
“After Xu Xiang was arrested, many people got nervous,” said Ye Fei, a Shanghai-based fund manager, who was himself fined $US3 million for stockmarket manipulation in September.
Mr Ye, who manages the equivalent of about $US785 million in assets, didn’t dispute the fine but said he has since hired a new compliance officer. “I have been studying the rules very carefully, because I don’t want to pay my hard-earned profits out as fines,” he said.
Two of Mr Xu’s funds had attracted widespread attention in China for their unusual success, posting strong gains this year even as the broader market declined.
It wasn’t possible to reach either Mr Xu or his parents for comment, and it wasn’t clear whether they had legal representation.
Fund managers say regulators have been telling them what they like and don’t like via warning letters from stock exchanges to brokers. Piling on buy orders when stocks are rising is bad. Dumping shares when the market is tanking also gets a warning.
Shorting index futures — to bet on falling markets or simply to hedge against stock portfolios — is now frowned upon. Sidney Yu, a hedge-fund manager in Shanghai, said he hasn’t been trading in recent months. “I don’t want to get arrested,” said Mr Yu, who manages the equivalent of about $US188 million in assets.
“It has become very expensive to short the market, even just for hedging purposes,” Mr Yu said.
The broad crackdown began June 20, when the head of a bureau that monitors share issuance at the securities regulator was fired after her husband was suspected of illegal stock trading.
The day before, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index had fallen 6.4 per cent, capping one of its worst weeks in years.
As the sell-off deepened, the vice minister of public security was sent to Shanghai in early July to launch a probe into criminal trading offences.
Three weeks later, the China Securities Regulatory Commission imposed restrictions on 24 trading accounts, including those set up by foreign hedge funds such as Citadel LLC, for alleged irregularities caused by high-frequency trading. Citadel said at the time that the rest of its China business was operating normally and it was continuing to comply with all local laws.
The campaign intensified in late August, when Chinese police detained eight executives from Citic Securities, the country’s largest brokerage, over suspected involvement in illegal securities investments.
A few days later, four more Citic executives were detained as was Liu Shufan, a senior CSRC official who was accused of bribery and insider trading.
On the same day, Wang Xiaolu, a journalist at the influential financial magazine Caijing, was placed under detention on allegations of fabricating and spreading false market information. Caijing had earlier published an article by Mr Wang that cited unnamed sources as saying the securities regulator was considering an exit strategy for the government’s market-rescue effort. Mr Wang couldn’t be reached for comment. After his detention, state TV showed him saying he had inflicted “huge losses on the country and investors.”
The campaign reached a climax when the police placed Citic Securities’ general manager Cheng Boming under investigation for insider trading in September and later fired Zhang Yujun, assistant chairman at the CSRC, after a probe into “severe violation of discipline.”
Mr Zhang was the highest-ranking CSRC official to lose his job. Signifying his importance, he had been dubbed “captain of the national team”— the group of officials that led the government’s market bailout.
Since the crackdown began, CSRC officials and mid- to senior-level executives at Citic Securities have been forbidden from internal job transfers or resigning, people familiar with the situation told The Wall Street Journal.
Representatives of Citic or the CSRC couldn’t be reached for comment. It wasn’t possible to contact the detained executives, and it wasn’t clear whether any of them had legal representation. Citic Securities has previously said it was co-operating with police investigations of several employees.
“You have to prove that you are clean and wait for your freedom until the whole campaign is over,” one of the people said.
As China’s markets tumbled, Beijing took a variety of unorthodox steps to keep money in existing stocks, including ordering brokerages and large shareholders not to sell equities. For now, authorities appear to have succeeded in winning back retail investors’ confidence. The main Shanghai index has rebounded 25 per cent since a low in late August, when it had lost 43 per cent from a mid-June peak, erasing $US5 trillion in market value.
In an apparent signal that Beijing felt it was winning the battle to turn the market around, regulators last week ended a four-month-long ban on initial public offerings and vowed to reform the IPO process.
President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that the government would step up efforts to establish a well-functioning, well regulated stock market that fully protects investors’ rights.
“The government’s crackdown is necessary and it has restored some confidence,” said Wu Yunfeng, a retail investor in Shanghai. But he also has some lingering doubts.
“The authorities have arrested a lot of people, but we still don’t have a clear picture regarding the real reasons behind it,” Mr Wu said of the crash. “Sometimes we just tell ourselves that we don’t really need to know the truth, as long as the market goes up.”
Wall Street Journal