"As many as 4,000 officials have disappeared, using criminal gangs, mainly in the United States and Australia, to launder their ill-gotten gains, buy real estate and set up false identities, the Global Times said. 'Thousands of officials have fled China over the past 30 years with some 50 billion dollars in public funds,' state media said Monday, as the government scrambles to stem the tide of corruption."
The backstory is even more interesting. In Southern California's posh San Gabriel Valley (the Farthest Eastern hutong), PRC intelligence officers have placed an underground "bounty" on the heads of former officials, many of whom live in the valley's upper class residential communities such as San Marino, Pasadena, and Arcadia. If you can locate one of the former officials -- usually living under assumed names in heavily secured compounds costing millions of dollars -- you are paid a USD $25,000 "finder's fee." The only trouble is, pointing the finger could theoretically lead to a kidnapping, and U.S. conspiracy laws are notoriously broad in what constitutes "agreement and one overt act."
The backstory is even more interesting. In Southern California's posh San Gabriel Valley (the Farthest Eastern hutong), PRC intelligence officers have placed an underground "bounty" on the heads of former officials, many of whom live in the valley's upper class residential communities such as San Marino, Pasadena, and Arcadia. If you can locate one of the former officials -- usually living under assumed names in heavily secured compounds costing millions of dollars -- you are paid a USD $25,000 "finder's fee." The only trouble is, pointing the finger could theoretically lead to a kidnapping, and U.S. conspiracy laws are notoriously broad in what constitutes "agreement and one overt act."
