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To: Poet who wrote (63444)	1/22/2000 7:31:00 PM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

China Rocked By $10B Smuggling Ring High-Level Officials Charged With Smuggling Oil, Telephones Jan. 22 ? A $10 billion smuggling ring involving top provincial officials and a Politburo member may be modern China?s worst case of official corruption ever. Beijing has asked Interpol to arrest Lan Fu, vice-mayor of Xiamen city in the southeastern Fujian province, who has now fled to Australia. He?s charged with involvement in a plot to smuggle tens of thousands of barrels of oil, cars, semiconductors, and more than $300 million in telephone equipment through the port of Xiamen without paying taxes. The South China Morning Post reported that the ring evaded more than $50 million in taxes. A senior police official has reportedly been arrested for helping Lan flee the country. Australian diplomats said they don?t know where Lan is. Sources in Xiamen told the press that another 159 government officials, including top bankers, are being interrogated in connection with the smuggling ring. One of them is Jia Qinlin, a former top official of Fujian who is now a member of the national ruling committee. His estranged wife is under investigation in the scandal. The case revolves around a private company called the Fairwell Group and its president, Lai Changxin. Lai employed army officers? families, treated officials to lavish parties, and left suitcases of money in bankers? offices, reports say. His firm had a dock at the Xiamen port. Fairwell has now collapsed, Lai?s private club has closed and the Fujian Juzhou Group, the government-run firm which Lai was using to get import licenses, has seen its stock price plummet by half. Lai is also nowhere to be found.