A US federal grand jury has accused four people with channeling inappropriate and criminal financial transactions through casinos in Las Vegas.
US authorities have indicted two Chinese nationals who are former employees of the Bank of China, and their wives, for stealing over $485 million from the Bank of China. The money was laundered through banks in Las Vegas. The official charges are of money laundering, racketeering, and fraud.
Xu Chaofan and Xu Guojun, the former Bank of China employees, and their wives Kuang Wan Fang and Yu Ying Yi, allegedly began stealing from the bank in 1998, when they lived in China. The two couples reportedly created front companies in Hong Kong and Canada through which they channeled the stolen funds. However, several years later, the Chinese nationals moved illegally to the U.S., where they allegedly continued to steal from the bank.
In the U.S., the stolen money was, according to investigators dealing with the case, funneled through Las Vegas hotel and casino accounts, including one $2 million deposit made into a Las Vegas casino resort account in April of 2001.
Federal officials have been investigating the case for over two years. |
