On the afternoon of October 13, the Intermediate People s Court in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province delivered a court ruling on the smuggling-related money-laundering case involving WANG Zhijun and DUAN Yinfang, with Wang convicted of goods smuggling crime and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, and Duan convicted of money laundering (ML) crime and sentenced to 1 year imprisonment, 1 year probation and a fine of 150,000 yuan.
Since September 2007 when the People s Bank of China (PBC) launched the Heavenly Net Action until the most recent ruling, a total of 6 ML cases have been adjudicated, more than the sum of ML cases before the Action.
It was found out that defendant Wang (male), the legal representative and General Manager of Thailand Yongkang International Trading Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as Thailand Yongkang), masterminded, organized and manipulated the entire process of the smuggling and ML criminal activities. Defendant Duan (female), chief accountant of Changzhou Yongkang Used-Plastic Recycling Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as Changzhou Yongkang), was responsible for preparing purchase and settlement documents and transferring proceeds from smuggling according to Wang s instructions.
From January 2005 to March 2007, Thailand Yongkang sold tens of thousands of waste plastic to over a score of chemical fiber manufacturers located in Wuxi, Jiangyin, Changshu and etc. by declaring lower-than-market prices to the Customs and asked the payment to be made in two installments: one installment in foreign currency converted by designated domestic foreign trading firms at a price much lower than the contract price; the other installment in Renminbi, namely the difference between the declared price to the Customs and the actual trading price, remitted as per Wang s instructions to accounts in the name of Duan and other people.
After payment, Duan and other people withdrew money from their bankcards and sent the money to Wang. Through such methods described above, Thailand Yongkang and Wang transferred criminal proceeds worth 34.86 million yuan in total, among which 2.28 million yuan could convict Duan of money laundering.
This case is one of the priority cases under the Heavenly Net Action . Its ruling signals an important outcome of the endeavors of the PBC AML Bureau and its affiliates and of the AML coordination mechanism with other related government authorities, and sets an example for cracking down on transnational smuggling and ML crimes.
