482 Suspects Seized in Transnational Telecom Fraud

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482 Suspects Seized in Transnational Telecom Fraud
Investment Group of Springhill South Korea
Telecom Scam
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Suspects involved in major transnational telecom
fraud are escorted to get off the plane after
arriving in Beijing, capital of China, May 24,
2012. A total of 126 Chinese who are suspected to
be part of a group involved in major
transnational telecom fraud were escorted from
Thailand and Malaysia respectively to Beijing
Thursday. Police from the mainland and Taiwan
busted the group on Wednesday with the help of
law enforcement agencies in six countries,
including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia,
Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Fiji. Photo Xinhua/Li
Xin
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A total of 482 people suspected of being involved
in a major transnational telecom scam were seized
by law enforcement officials from the Chinese
mainland and Taiwan on Wednesday with the help of
police in six countries. Of the suspects, 177
were from the Chinese mainland and 286 were from
Taiwan, the Ministry of Public Security said
Thursday. The other 19 suspects are from Thailand
and Myanmar.
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They are suspected of having stolen more than 73
million yuan (11.5 million U.S. dollars) in 510
cases of telecom fraud, all of which occurred in
the Chinese mainland, the ministry said. These
suspects spread throughout the Chinese mainland
and Taiwan, as well as six other countries --
Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Sri
Lanka and Fiji -- and established
money-laundering dens in Taiwan and Thailand, it
said. One-hundred-twenty-six suspects from the
Chinese mainland were escorted from Thailand and
Malaysia to Beijing on Thursday, and they will be
interrogated further, according to the ministry.
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Moreover, 262 of the total 286 Taiwanese suspects
have been escorted back to Taiwan. The ministry
launched the investigation in November 2011, and
invited police from Taiwan to work out effective
solutions. Early this May, the ministry sent six
groups composed of 70 Chinese police officers to
the six countries to further investigate. The
group was busted on Wednesday with the help of
law enforcement agencies in those six countries,
the ministry said. "The group mainly squeezed
money from individuals or companies by calling
them in the name of police or procuratorate staff
and threatening to accuse them of
money-laundering crimes," said Liu Ancheng,
deputy director of the ministry's Criminal
Investigation Bureau.
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They asked the victims to transfer money into the
group's accounts and then told their accomplices
in Taiwan and Thailand to withdraw the money from
local ATMs, said Liu. Liu noted that the
Taiwanese suspects comprised the majority of the
group, distinguishing this from most cases that
occur in the mainland. "Ringleaders from Taiwan
were deterred by mainland police's stern
crackdown on telecom scams, so they recruited
locals in Taiwan to commit this crime," Liu
said. The ministry said it regards the
coordinated crackdown on the telecom scam as a
new paradigm of transnational police cooperation,
adding that China's law enforcement departments
are always confident in, and capable of,
safeguarding the security of people's property. 
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Suspects involved in major transnational telecom
fraud are escorted to get off the plane after
arriving in Beijing, capital of China, May 24,
2012. Fifty-three Chinese who are suspected to be
part of a group involved in major transnational
telecom fraud were escorted from Thailand to
Beijing Thursday. Another group of 73 suspects
were escorted by mainland police from Malaysia to
Beijing, the Ministry of Public Security said.
Police from the mainland and Taiwan busted the
group on Wednesday with the help of law
enforcement agencies in six countries, including
Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Sri
Lanka and Fiji, the ministry said.Photo
Xinhua/Li Xin