September 26 2017
Australia has returned about A$215,000 (US$170,000) to China in funds it has seized from money laundering cases as the two countries agreed on Tuesday to strengthen efforts to crack down on financial crime. Australia has been working with China’s “Operation Fox Hunt” to snare suspected corrupt officials who have fled overseas or hidden assets offshore. A handful of the 100 top suspects wanted by Beijing are living in Australia.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin said the payment showed that Australia was a “hostile environment for criminals seeking to hide their illegally obtained assets”. However, the returned sum is tiny compared with the A$4.8 billion in Chinese direct investment into Australia in 2016.