New | Another ‘Sky Net’ success: US returns woman fugitive to face graft, fraud charges in China
Kuang Wanfang, the wife of a former Bank of China official, has been in hiding for 14 years and was jailed in the US on money laundering charges
A Chinese woman who served a prison term in the United States for money laundering was returned to China on Thursday, authorities said, just ahead of a meeting between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Barack Obama.
Kuang Wanfang, who is wanted in a bribery investigation and is the wife of a former official of the state-owned Bank of China, was repatriated following cooperation with US law enforcement officials, China’s Supervision Ministry said.
Kuang is the second person to be sent back to China from the US since Beijing launched the “Sky Net” campaign in April to bring back people who have fled overseas after being accused of economic crimes.
The US lacks an extradition treaty with China and is wary that the country’s opaque court system may be unfair to defendants, so it has typically been cautious in turning Chinese nationals over to Beijing, making it a top destination for corrupt Chinese officials.
Beijing seeks to change that, and Washington has agreed to cooperate but also demands solid evidence against the accused.
