北京严控民间资金外流

https://www.wenxuecity.com/news/2023/05/17/12322682.html

北京严控民间资金外流 地下钱庄收费翻倍
文章来源: 自由亚洲电台 于 2023-05-17 08:53:47 - 新闻取自各大新闻媒体，新闻内容并不代表本网立场！
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北京严控民间资金外流 路透社资料图片

中国民间大量资金外逃，导致地下钱庄收取的佣金水涨船高。据知情人士披露，近期通过地下钱庄用人民币转美元至境外的佣金达7%，同比上涨一倍。另外，为打击资金外流，两家在线经纪公司的应用程序被迫在中国下架，消息导致富途控股和老虎证券周二在美国的股价大跌。

近期，上海、深圳等地一线城市的二手房成交量和价格大幅度下跌。深圳豪宅降价一千万元，却无人问津，上海数千万元的豪宅大跌数百万元。舆论认为，局势不稳造成抛售房产，套现资金。不愿公开身份的欧阳女士本周三（17日）告诉自由亚洲电台，近期不少人通过地下钱庄将资金转移到境外，转移资金的手续费由去年冬季的3%左右，提高到本周的7%左右。她说：“通过地下钱庄汇款，前两天我听说最高的7%，就是因为需求很大，汇款难度比以前高了。很多人把自己的生意卖掉了。现在地下钱庄不做10万（美元）、20万美元汇款生意，单笔最少50万美金起。”

 

中国民间大量资金外逃，导致地下钱庄收取的佣金水涨船高。（路透社资料图片）

资金加速外流地下钱庄收费水涨船高

鉴于中国当局更加关注数据安全和资本外流，由腾讯公司所支持的富途控股本周二说，其应用程序将自5月19日起从中国的应用程序商店中删除，而老虎证券也将从5月18日起执行同样操作。上述两家公司都称，他们在中国大陆的现有客户不会受到应用程序下架的影响。不过，该两款应用程序下架将使中国大陆的大量潜在散户投资者无法在美国和香港等市场轻松交易证券。

对此，欧阳女士说，富途控股和老虎证券已经多次被中国有关部门要求停止在中国运作。她说，官方主要目的是防止资金外流：“因为你把钱转移出去投资美股或港股。习政府也不喜欢客户跟美国的金融市场交流。昨天传出打压的事情，已经持续了很长一段时间，之前不让开户，前一段时期是盯着老虎证券，现在是一起打，后续估计要把资金通道切断。”

中国监管机构早在2021年就警告这两家公司，未在中国获得许可的在线经纪公司如果通过互联网为中国客户提供服务，则属于非法行为。

 

由于中国当局更加关注数据安全和资本外流，在线经纪公司富途控股和老虎证券将在中国大陆删除其应用程序。（RFA制图）

富途控股和老虎证券已多次被警告

资深财经评论人士蔡慎坤对本台说，富途控股和老虎证券在中国市场属于非法运作，但过去中国有足够的外汇储备，而现在的情况大不相同：“现在外汇面临逐步减少，而且幅度很大，在这样的一种情况下，他肯定要切断所有的外资流出的渠道。所以说这只是一个开始。我估计很快会从国内向境外汇出的资金，包括每人每年五万美金的额度都会面临全面的管控。”

富途在纳斯达克上市的股票在周二（16日）早盘交易中下跌 7.5%，而老虎证券在公告发布后下跌近9%。

媒体人贺先生对本台说，许多现象愈来愈反映出中国正在进行与西方国家脱节的准备：“和世界在经济、政治、文化领域脱节。最终他要达成这个目标，特别是在经济领域。”

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/05/14/china-black-market-money-laundering-drug-cartels/

How China came to dominate the black market for money laundering
Chinese entities fill a gap left by a crackdown on illicit cash cleaning methods

china money laundering
When Rosario D’Onofrio strolled into Milan’s colourful Chinatown quarter in March 2020, he was allegedly carrying €180,000 in cash.

The Italian football referee, who has been accused of moonlighting as a drug trafficker known as “Rambo”, was there to meet a Chinese money launderer who could help him pay suppliers in Spain for a shipment of hashish, prosecutors claim.

Once the money was handed over, it didn’t go abroad. Instead, all D’Onofrio’s contact had to do was send a text message to an associate in Spain, who was told to pay the same amount to the supplier there.

This effective transfer – known as a “mirror transaction” – left no direct trail for police to follow. D’Onofrio only paid the Chinese launderer €2,700 euros, a commission of just 1.5pc.

The March 2020 incident, revealed by Italian anti-mafia prosecutors, is an example of a growing problem for authorities in Europe, North America and Latin America as criminal gangs increasingly tap into a vast network of Chinese fixers to clean their dirty cash. 

(D’Onofrio was arrested by Italian police last November. His lawyer declined to comment to Reuters on the case last month.)

The influence of China over the money laundering industry looms so large that some experts believe Chinese-controlled entities and individuals are now responsible for as much as half of the industry.

Even Mexican and Colombian drug cartels, who previously kept such activities “in house”, are now using Chinese launderers to service their empires, US lawmakers heard last month.

World Bank estimates 2pc to 5pc of global GDP is laundered each year
World Bank estimates 2pc to 5pc of global GDP is laundered each year Credit: STR/AFP
In the UK, meanwhile, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned that some Chinese students have become “mules” for gangs moving illicit cash in and out of the country.

China and its citizens have emerged as a major fixer in the global flow of dark money by moving to fill a market gap left by a crackdown on other methods of cleaning cash.

“Criminals will always adapt, in the same way governments do,” says Maria Nizzelo, a financial crime researcher at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

Money laundering is what keeps the wheels of organised crime turning. Without it, criminals cannot easily spend their illicit gains.

By definition, the practice is fiendishly difficult to detect. Most experts assume the equivalent of 2pc to 5pc of global GDP is laundered each year, or $2 to $5 trillion, according to the World Bank.

Much of this is linked to the drugs trade. Mexican and Colombian cartels have long relied on the black market peso exchange and bulk cash smuggling for their needs.

However, this has become harder after Mexico restricted US dollar bank deposits to $4,000 a month and Colombia imposed strict new anti-laundering laws, forcing the cartels to find new avenues.

Increasingly, criminals in Latin America are turning to Chinese gangs, who offer near-instantaneous money transfers for rock-bottom fees. Where other brokers charge 10pc to 15pc commission, the Chinese may charge up to 6pc and sometimes nothing at all.

Fees are lower because these groups see drug money as a side hustle. Their main profits come from helping Chinese politicians and elites get their money offshore, away from the prying eyes of Beijing. 

Drug cartels in Latin America are turning to Chinese gangs to move money 
Drug cartels in Latin America are turning to Chinese gangs to move money Credit: ALEXANDRE MENEGHINI/REUTERS
Under China’s currency controls, people cannot send the equivalent of more than $50,000 abroad per year. As a result, elites who wish to spend freely abroad may struggle to source cash. The dollars amassed by cartels in the US offer a useful liquidity pool.

“It’s a symbiotic relationship,” explains Channing Mavrellis, director of illicit trade at Global Financial Integrity, a Washington-based think tank. “The Chinese and the cartels each have what the other wants.”

To move money internationally, the launderers rely on age-old techniques such as trade-based money laundering (TBML), according to John Cassara, who served as an intelligence officer for the CIA and as a special agent at the US Treasury.

TBML involves over or under charging for shipments of everything from watches and gold to cheap widgets, effectively settling debts with the value of other goods.

The scope for TBML has only become larger as Chinese trade with the world has boomed. Customs policing is also relatively light-tough when compared to banking regulation.

“I think people are only just starting to understand the magnitude of Chinese transnational crime,” Cassara says. “These are systems that have been around for a long time, but which effectively bypass our anti-money laundering countermeasures.”

Another of the most distinctive techniques used by Chinese gangs is fei-chien, or “flying money”.

A kind of underground banking, it relies on trusted bonds between family, friends and business partners and has long been used, legitimately, by millions of Chinese labourers to send wages home when working abroad.

“The recordkeeping procedures of the underground banking system are nearly nonexistent, with coded messages, “chits,” and telephone calls used to transfer money from one country to another,” according to the US Justice Department.

This system is open to abuse, with gang-affiliated brokers offering services to cartels, labourers and wealthy clients alike.

Nate Sibley, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, says criminal proceeds in the US are often washed by gang-controlled Chinese businesses that are cash-generative, such as restaurants, casinos and dry cleaners.

This means the cash is easily disguised and can be deposited in legitimate bank accounts with minimal suspicion.

“Many of these businesses are hard-working Chinese Americans but the gangs exploit them,” Sibley points out.

Chinese-controlled entities and individuals account for half of the money-laundering industry, according to experts
Chinese-controlled entities and individuals account for half of the money-laundering industry, according to experts Credit: THOMAS PETER/REUTERS
Once the dollars are safely in a bank account, the launderers can sell them to a Chinese elite, or buy property and pay college tuition fees on their behalf. In exchange, the elite sends the corresponding amount of renminbi – plus a fee – from their Chinese bank account to the gang’s account in China. No money leaves either the US or China.

A 2019 report by the NCA found things work similarly in the UK, where gang operatives duped Chinese students into helping by telling them they needed to use their bank account on behalf of a fellow student or unbanked Chinese worker who wanted to send money home.

Some students knowingly help and – for a fee – collect criminal cash and distribute it into “mule” accounts. In one case, a gang gained control over 600 mule accounts at a single bank, the NCA said.

Many of those who play along are on short visas and run a low risk of being caught, says Laurence Howland, a former investigator at HM Revenue and Customs who worked as a UK government liaison in China and is now director of compliance at Buckles Solicitors.

“It is a major problem,” he adds, “and as Chinese business opportunities grow internationally, the opportunities for criminals to move money do as well.”

Most western experts agree that more specialist resources are needed to tackle the problem, as well as cooperation from the Chinese government, which often provides only minimal support.

With so many transactions – many of them brokered on platforms such as WeChat and Alipay – Global Financial Integrity’s Mavrellis says it is not clear whether Chinese authorities could easily thwart the gangs.

But Cassara claims Beijing cannot be ignorant of what is happening. He refers collectively to the Chinese criminal networks as “Chinese Communist Party Incorporated”.

“The government cracks down very efficiently on websites and social media that they judge is a threat against the CCP regime. They could crack down on this too if they want to.”

China insists it “has never been, is not, and will never become a global hub for money laundering”.