Xiao Za team: Can the money be recovered from the main suspect "Hong Tong" of the major case involving Xida An Lantian Ge Rui?

Recently, influenced by the case of billions of dollars in Bitcoin money laundering and the arrest of the main suspect Qian in the Tianjin Blue Sky Ge Rui case in the UK, the Sa Sister team noticed that the Tianjin Public Security Bureau Hedong Branch publicly released a case briefing.

The case briefing reveals the following key information:

1. In February 2018, Tianjin police had already issued a red notice for Qian through Interpol and actively carried out global capture efforts;

2. Currently, through international law enforcement cooperation channels, ongoing collaboration with relevant law enforcement agencies in countries such as the UK is being conducted for international pursuit and recovery.

3. Participants in the fundraising should express their demands through legal means and should not easily trust informal channels for cross-border recovery agents.

Today, the Sa Sister team will discuss what a "red notice" is, in conjunction with this case, and the subsequent developments of the case.

What is a "Red Notice"?

When it comes to "wanted notices," most people are familiar with them. A simple search of various social news or legal news will show wanted notices issued by the Ministry of Public Security of China. In China, a formal wanted notice must be issued by the Ministry of Public Security, aimed at informing local police and the public about the information of fugitives, requesting assistance in capturing them or providing leads. China's wanted notices are divided into two levels: "A" and "B." "A-level" is issued for fugitives that the Ministry of Public Security considers should be prioritized for capture, mainly applicable to urgent situations, significant cases, or sudden violent incidents. "B-level" is issued at the request of provincial public security agencies for capturing fugitives.

So what is a "Red Notice"? What effect does it have? Is the "Red Notice" level higher or lower compared to A and B level wanted notices?

"Red Notice" is the full name of the Red Notice, also known as a red wanted notice, which is an international notice issued by Interpol after a specific country's functional agency applies for it. In fact, Interpol issues various types of international notices, not just "Red Notices." The common ones are "Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, and Black" wanted notices, each with different effects and applicable scopes as follows:

• International Arrest Warrant (Red Notice): Arresting fugitives under the premise of requesting extradition.
• International Intelligence Reference Notice (Blue Notice): Requesting information about the location, identity, and criminal history of international criminals.
• International Missing Persons Notice (Yellow Notice): Requesting information about missing persons and those without the ability to rescue themselves.
• International Prevention Notice (Green Notice): Interpol notifies about international habitual offenders, urging countries to pay attention to search efforts.
• International Identity Unknown Deceased Notice (Black Notice): Reporting unidentified deceased persons found domestically and providing identity references.

Additionally, there are rumors of a White Notice for stolen artworks and cultural items, as well as a Purple Notice for international special criminal methods, but the Sa Sister team has not found these two special notices from public sources.

Conditions for Issuing a "Red Notice"

It is important to know that a "Red Notice" cannot be issued at will. Due to the involvement of cross-border judicial cooperation in recovery, Interpol has specified a series of rules for issuing a "Red Notice." According to the "Interpol Constitution," the specific conditions are as follows:

1. Substantive Conditions for Issuing a "Red Notice"

(1) The subject of the red notice has violated the provisions of the Criminal Law and has constituted a crime;

(2) The subject of the red notice has been approved for arrest by the procuratorate or has a valid court judgment recognizing that they have constituted a crime;

(3) There is evidence indicating that the subject of the red notice has fled abroad;

(4) The suspect or criminal applying for the issuance of the red notice may be sentenced to more than one year of fixed-term imprisonment or other heavier penalties.

2. Procedural Conditions for Issuing a "Red Notice"

(1) The issuance of a "Red Notice" must be applied for by the relevant national functional departments to Interpol;

(2) Relevant departments of Interpol will conduct a review;

(3) After passing the review, the issuance will be jointly signed by the Director of the Interpol General Secretariat and the Secretary-General of Interpol.

3. Cost Conditions for Issuing a "Red Notice"

Each application for a "Red Notice" requires the applicant country to pay a fee of $500,000. Due to the high cost of issuance, the threshold for a "Red Notice" is actually quite high. Many suspects of crimes fleeing abroad, unless involved in special circumstances, will generally be assessed based on the amount involved in the case to decide whether to apply to Interpol for a "Red Notice."

4. Prohibitive Requirements for Issuing a "Red Notice"

Article 3 of the "Interpol Constitution" explicitly prohibits the use of Interpol for any political, military, religious, or racial interventions or activities. Therefore, for special crimes, it is also very difficult to request Interpol to issue a "Red Notice."

It is important to note that a "Red Notice" has a time limit, generally expiring five years after its issuance. However, this period can be extended as long as the relevant fees continue to be paid, allowing the "Red Notice" to remain effective. In other words, if a country decides not to pursue a fugitive criminal anymore, they can simply wait for the "Red Notice" to expire, and the relevant suspect may be able to return to normal life.

Qian, the Subject of the "Red Notice," Arrested in the UK: Can the Money from the Blue Sky Ge Rui Case Be Recovered?

According to the "Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Illegal Fundraising" and other regulations and judicial practices, the ways for participants (victims) in illegal fundraising in China to recover their funds generally include two: 1. If the public security organs have already seized the illicit funds during the case handling, they can be directly returned to the victims by the public security organs; 2. After the court's judgment, based on the actual situation of recovery, the funds can be returned to the participants (victims) proportionally.

So, can a "Red Notice" help recover the money? The answer is no. A "Red Notice" is actually just a notice issued for fugitives, and on one hand, it does not have legal enforcement power; it does not automatically produce the effect of an "arrest warrant" in the judicial jurisdiction of other countries (for example, if a foreign "Red Notice" subject is captured by our judicial authorities, our judicial authorities also need to take criminal detention measures according to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law and decide whether to approve the arrest); on the other hand, a "Red Notice" targets the fugitive criminal themselves, not their property. Identifying the property involved in the case and pursuing it across borders requires a separate and extremely complex legal procedure.

Of course, the Sa Sister team believes that Qian's arrest is a good thing, as it undoubtedly increases the possibility of recovering the property involved in the Blue Sky Ge Rui case that has been transferred abroad by our judicial authorities.

There are actually many successful cases of cross-border recovery involving "Red Notice" subjects. For example, the "Li Huabo Embezzlement Case" (Case No. 74) published in the 20th batch of guiding cases by the Supreme People's Procuratorate. Between October 2006 and December 2010, Li Huabo, taking advantage of his position as the head of the Economic Construction Section of the Finance Bureau of Poyang County, used various methods such as reusing previous approval procedures, issuing transfer checks privately with forged seals, and creating fake bank statements to defraud a total of 94 million yuan from the special funds for infrastructure construction of the Poyang County Finance Bureau. After the case was discovered, Li Huabo converted more than 27 million yuan of illicit funds into Singapore dollars through a private company in Singapore and transferred them to personal accounts held by him and his wife at UOB in Singapore. After Li Huabo was placed on a "Red Notice," the involved illicit funds were seized by the Singapore police, totaling more than 5.4 million Singapore dollars.

In 2011, due to the absence of any bilateral extradition and criminal judicial assistance treaties between China and Singapore, the two countries chose to conduct international judicial cooperation for this case based on the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, which both countries jointly approved. In early March 2011, the Singapore court issued a freezing order to freeze the involved property transferred to Singapore by Li Huabo and his wife. After the Chinese court issued a valid judgment, on June 29, 2016, the Singapore High Court ruled to return all the seized involved property of more than 5.4 million Singapore dollars held by Li Huabo and his wife to China.

In Conclusion

The Sa Sister team believes that the fact that the main suspect in the Blue Sky Ge Rui case is listed on the "Red Notice" and has been arrested in the UK will greatly assist in clarifying the relevant circumstances of the involved property in this case. From the current situation, our judicial authorities have already initiated recovery efforts through various channels. The participants (victims) in this case can await good news while fulfilling their supervisory obligations, and should not be anxious or easily trust others, leading to further personal financial losses.

This concludes today's sharing. Thank you to our readers!