LOS ANGELES鈥擜 former Chinese official who was a fugitive for聽more than five years is expected to plead guilty Dec. 20 to a federal conspiracy聽charge alleging he laundered millions of dollars and used some of the stolen聽funds to purchase properties in Monterey Park.
Jianjun Qiao, 58, was extradited from Sweden to Los Angeles last year聽to face charges originally filed seven years ago.
A federal grand jury in July 2014 indicted Qiao and his ex-wife,聽alleging two separate schemes. An expanded indictment against Qiao returned in聽December 2018 charges him with conspiracy to commit immigration fraud and
international transport of stolen money, conspiracy to commit money laundering,聽and three counts of engaging in financial transactions in a criminally derived聽property.
Prosecutors allege that as the director of a grain storehouse in聽Zhoukou City, Henan Province, from 1998 to 2011, Qiao laundered millions of聽dollars in proceeds related to fraudulent transactions through banks in China,聽Hong Kong, and Singapore. indictment alleges that Qiao then used the stolen聽funds to, among other things, purchase the Monterey Park properties.
Qiao’s ex-wife, Shilan Zhao, 58, of Newcastle, Washington, pleaded聽guilty in January 2017 to conspiring with her former husband to falsely portray聽themselves as still married and lying about the source of Zhao’s foreign聽investment, which was required under the EB-5 immigrant investor program to聽obtain U.S. immigrant visas. She is scheduled to be sentenced in March.
Pezou : Former Chinese Official to Plead Guilty in LA to Money Laundering