Global Financial Integrity

China in Our Backyard: How Chinese Money Laundering Organizations Enrich the Cartels

On April 26, 2023, GFI’s Illicit Trade Director Channing Mavrellis testified before the House Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services at the hearing titled “China in Our Backyard: How Chinese Money Laundering Organizations Enrich the Cartels.”...

The China Client: Wildlife Trafficking in Mexico

Today, Mexico is among the three Latin American countries with the highest rates of wildlife trafficking. This problem is complex, especially considering one of their increasingly prolific partners is China.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative Exacerbating Illicit Supply Chains and Trade-Based Money Laundering

Since its inception, China has spent an estimated US $200 billion on renewing and modernizing overland trade routes that make up the BRI. New research by Global Financial Integrity and King’s College London finds that improved transport corridors are fueling illicit financial flows (IFFs) and criminal exploitation as the BRI has not been designed and implemented with the aversion of crime.

China plays an outsized role in transnational crime, illicit financial flows mirroring its growth as an international superpower

The People’s Republic of China plays an extremely impactful role as a source, transit and/or demand country in many of the most widespread and serious transnational crimes as well as a key facilitator of global illicit financial flows.

Made in China: China’s Role in Transnational Crime and Illicit Financial Flows

This paper scrutinizes China’s role in four different transnational crimes—drug trafficking, counterfeiting and IP theft, human trafficking and wildlife trafficking—as well as the illicit financial flows (IFFs) associated with these crimes.

Made in China: China’s Role in Transnational Crime & Illicit Financial Flows

Join us on October 27 for a discussion on China’s role in transnational crime and IFFs, the dynamics of these crimes/flows and the Chinese government’s response, as well as what the international community can do to better understand, and combat, these activities.

China’s Illicit Outflows Were US$1.08 Trillion from 2002-2011

GFI’s Current Methodology Finds Illicit Outflows from China Totaled US$1.08 Trillion from 2002-2011, Not US$2.83 Trillion from 2005-2011

With the anti-corruption drive underway in China, our estimates of illicit financial flows have been in the news a lot lately.  This is for good reason; there is a ton of illicit money gushing out of China.

But, if you have been reading multiple stories on this topic, you might be a little confused about the precise scale of the problem facing China.

Prominent outlets such as the Financial Times, the South China Morning Post, and China Daily, among others, have all reported over the past week that:

“The US-based non-profit group Global Financial Integrity estimates illegal flows out of China amounted to $2.83tn between 2005 and 2011.”

While other major sources such as Businessweek and the Heritage Foundation have stated:

“Between 2002 and 2011, $1.08 trillion of illicit funds were spirited out of China, estimates Washington (D.C.)-based nonprofit Global Financial Integrity.”

These estimates are widely different.  Some of these outlets must be incorrect in their reporting, right?

China’s Corrupt Economic Fugitives are Finding a Home in the U.S.

U.S. Laws Enable the Outflow of Illicit Money from China, which Totaled US$1.08 Trillion from 2002 to 2011

Corrupt politicians, fugitive officials, and leaders on the lam have found a new safe haven to call home—the United States of America.

Interestingly enough, despite the sometimes contentious relationship between the two countries, the U.S. has now become the destination of choice for China’s “economic fugitives” running from corruption charges in their home country according to China Daily and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Many of these fugitives are known as “naked officials”, those who have moved their assets and family abroad to avoid regulations and scrutiny. Much of the time, these are high ranking leaders who have decided to move their wealth abroad should a corruption investigation arise.