加拿大引渡法让温哥华变成骗子的天堂(组图)a Grifter's Haven

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加拿大引渡法让温哥华变成骗子的天堂

【星星生活-星网讯】 七年来中国政府一直想把赖昌星引渡回国,不断要求加拿大政府把这个最大通缉犯交出来。

http://news.newstarnet.com/gb/MainNews/HotTopics/2007_3_23_9_47_26_626.html


但赖昌星可不想回去。因为这位被政府指控经营着一个庞大的走私和行贿帝国的曾是中国最富有的商人,并不确定自己被遣送回国后将会发生什么。

赖昌星近日在接受《华盛顿邮报》采访时说:“我不知道我是否将被拖出去枪毙,或者遭到殴打,或被毒死。”所以,赖昌星的律师一直为其申辩,使他留了下来,呆在他的温哥华寓所内。

《华盛顿邮报》3月22日发表题为《加拿大引渡法已让温哥华变成骗子的天堂》的文章,介绍了几名“躲藏“在温哥华的被通缉的“骗子”,其中包括从中国逃出的两名通缉犯求求赖昌星和高山。

文章说,赖昌星在温哥华有不少“陪伴”,这些“陪伴”不是在某个地方被通缉的白领,就是想力图躲避人们注意力的人。

《华盛顿邮报》说,温哥华政治般地偏爱着沉醉于正确的政治,环境干净清洁的形象,以及绵绵阴雨所培育出来的悠闲心情。但它也是这个世界被通缉的逃犯的一个天堂,为那些行骗者提供着法律的庇护。

曾经撰写过有关加拿大西部白领犯罪和股票交易黑幕的温哥华太阳报资深记者伯恩斯(David Baines)说:“骗子们都倾向于转往最末端,而温哥华则是这方面的最末端。

《华盛顿邮报》说,八年前,福布斯就把温哥华描绘为“世界的欺诈之都”。为此,政府当局进行了清理,关掉一些不规范的证券交易所,这些交易所都在股票交易中存在着许多问题。但伯恩斯说,这些问题仍然遗留下来。

伯恩斯指出,在那些会计师、律师、经纪人等专业人员中,存在着一个“调解人”,有人将其称为“欺骗的基础结构”。伯恩斯说,这个基础结构仍然存在着。

这个基础结构中心的许多低价股票,其实一文不值,却在美国的场外柜台市场(OTC)被交易,这些股票被推销员在电话和互联网上销售出去。美国证券交易委员会3月宣布展开Operation Spamalot行动,停止了在拉圾邮件推销中心中出现的35家公司的股票交易,而三分之一的公司都与加拿大卑诗省有关系,而该省的省会正是温哥华。

加拿大当局估计,在美国4000多家在场外柜台交易系统(OCTBB)中交易的公司中,温哥华就占了500家。这些公司不断声称自己拥有各种庞大的汽车库存、热矿前景、技术突破、医疗奇迹、有价值的房地产和令人兴奋的资产,而这些“业绩”往往都是被夸大或根本就不存在的。

卑诗省证券交易委员会公司财务负责人艾迪(Martin Eady)指出,在温哥华的部分经营者都在利用边界的优势。由于绝大多数受害者都在美国,所以当地的监管部门很少接到投诉。而美国的证券监管部门则正在警惕地追踪着,这些总部设在加拿大的公司。艾迪指出,当它涉及到跨越边境时,要想调查这些公司并对它们进行起诉,实在是太困难了。这个因素使所有事情,都至少加长了一倍。

P20070302001.jpg

图为卷款10亿美元的高山在温哥华出庭受审。(中新社)

《华盛顿邮报》指出,尽管这样的欺骗诡计往往其规模都很小,但却给与温哥华在生意交易上带来坏名声。艾迪说,“这些凶手应该不会感到他们可住在一个地方,而受到伤害的人则住在另一个地方,从而瞒天过海。”

但这些骗子却这样做了。聚集在温哥华的嫌犯,都对加拿大因引渡而进行冗长的法律审理程序而深受鼓舞,因为引渡官司一打就可以持续多年。其中,最有名的案例,并不是赖昌星一打就是七年的遣送官司,而是在印度出生的金融家萨克西那(Rakesh Saxena)。

多维社从英文媒体检索到的资料显示,萨克西那在英国获得英语硕士学位,毕业后开始追逐他的金融梦想,他曾在香港工作过,还在欧洲和塞拉利昂从事钻石和开矿生意。泰国政府指控他从曼谷商业银行贪污了8800万美元。1996年6月,泰国警方对其发出逮捕令。

同一年,萨克西那在卑诗省着名的滑雪胜地威斯特勒被逮捕。萨克西那已成功地把这场引渡官司打了十一年,在劝说法庭同意由他支付看守费用来把自己软禁起来后,他的绝大多数时间,都是在其位于温哥华的豪宅中度过的。

萨克西那还承认,他在家中企图在塞拉利昂发动一场的政变,并继续做被他称为“钻空子”的生意。萨克西那在其被警卫看守的豪宅中接受电话采访时说,在买卖空壳公司上“有很多学问”,“我做了很多这方面的交易,欧洲和香港空壳公司和合资企业。基本上这些都是套利买卖。你可以说它是钻空子,但它不违法。”

Duowei_2007_3_23_0_40_35_971_566.jpg

图为在加拿大打了11年引渡官司的萨克西那档案照。(资料图片)

2006年秋天,加拿大当局以为他们终于可以把萨克西那送上遣返曼谷的班机了,可当时泰国却发生了一场军事政变。随后,萨克西那又重新提出了上诉。

撰写过两本有关引渡书的加拿大律师鲍丁(Gary Botting)指出,加拿大漫长的法律程序,旨在确保那些被遣返的人在回国后不会遭到审判或酷刑。虽然鲍丁为加拿大的司法程序进行着辩护,但他同时也承认,象萨克西那这样有钱的逃犯,可能会通过无尽的上诉,长期拖延下去。

鲍丁还表示,在加拿大几个着名的遣返案件中,都有大量的金钱投入。对那些富人来说,肯定有不同的制度,他们能聘请名律师去钻各种法律空子。而萨克西那则认为:“加拿大没有权利把我送回泰国,因为你无法在那里得到公平的审判。”不过,他也承认,“目前的生活并不好过,恕我直言,这并不是我选择的居住地点。从我的角度看,它只是一个水池子。”

《华盛顿邮报》指出,除了萨克西那外,还有其它人也正寻求着这样做,赖昌星就是其中的一个。1999年,赖昌星在听到检察官正计划对他和他的家人动手前,他就选择逃往温哥华。中国官方称,赖昌星经营着一个巨大的走私集团,涉案金额达到10亿美元,并向福建省和厦门市官员行贿。

远华走私案的14名涉案者被判处死刑,其中8人已被处死。赖昌星的哥哥曾被中国调查人员带到温哥华,劝说弟弟回国,但在这次不成功的旅行返回中国后,死于监狱。

2006_06_01_09_02_45_152.jpg

赖昌星的律师马塔斯(中)在庭审结束后接受记者采访。(新华社)

赖昌星继续留在加拿大,一直令欲改善两国贸易关系的温哥华当局感到极不舒服。中国政府也不断要求加方,把赖昌星同其它几名逃犯一起遣送回国,其中包括近日出庭受审的银行官员高山。中国方面已承诺,在赖昌星被遣返回国后,不会判其死刑。不过,赖昌星的律师马塔斯(David Matas)认为,加拿大政府不应该相信中方的承诺。

马塔斯说:“现在的问题不是加拿大的司法系统,而是中国的司法系统。如果他们不实施酷刑,不判处死刑,他就会回去。”

48岁的赖昌星通过翻译对《华盛顿邮报》说,他现在的生活来源全靠朋友资助,他已经失去了曾经享受和拥有的所有财富。但他也承认,加拿大的法律已经让他躲避了一次强行遣返。

对当初逃往温哥华,赖昌星最后说,“我认为这是我做出的正确选择。”
 
Canada's Extradition Laws Help Make Vancouver a Grifter's Haven
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/21/AR2007032102326_pf.html

By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 22, 2007; A15


VANCOUVER, B.C. -- The Chinese government has been trying to get Lai Changxing for seven years, repeatedly demanding that Canada hand over the man who tops China's most-wanted list.

Lai does not want to go. The once-rich businessman, alleged by China to have run a vast bribery and smuggling empire, is unsure what would happen if he returned. "I don't know if I will be dragged around and shot, or beaten, or poisoned," he mused in an interview.

So while lawyers argue his case, Lai stays, biding time in a Vancouver apartment. He has company: The city is home to a wide cast of people who are either wanted by the law somewhere on white-collar charges or trying hard to avoid such attention.

Vancouver prefers to revel in politically correct politics, a squeaky-clean environmental image, and a laid-back mood fostered by persistent melancholy rain. But it also is a haven for some of the most wanted fugitives in the world and for con men working scams in the shadow of the law.

"Grifters tend to gravitate to the end of the line. Vancouver is kind of the end of the line," said David Baines, a veteran reporter for the Vancouver Sun who writes about stock schemes and white-collar crooks in this westernmost province.

Eight years ago, Forbes magazine described Vancouver as the "scam capital of the world." Authorities have cleaned up some of that and closed the largely unregulated Vancouver Stock Exchange, which did a Wild West trade in problem stocks. But Baines said the legacy remains.

"There was a cadre of facilitators -- accountants, lawyers, brokers -- that someone has called an 'infrastructure of chicanery.' It remains," Baines said.

Much of this centers on penny stocks, often worthless financial paper traded on the U.S. over-the-counter market. These stocks are sold by salesmen in high-pressure boiler-room telephone or Internet solicitations.

When the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced "Operation Spamalot" this month, stopping trading of 35 companies at the center of spam e-mail promotions, one-third of them had connections to British Columbia, the province where Vancouver is located.

Authorities here estimate that 500 of approximately 4,000 companies traded on the U.S. over-the-counter bulletin board and another penny stock listing service called the "Pink Sheets" can be traced back to Vancouver and British Columbia. The companies variously claim to have huge car inventories, hot mining prospects, technological breakthroughs, medical miracles, valuable real estate and other exciting assets, which often are inflated in value or nonexistent.

Their promoters operate here in part to take advantage of the border, said Martin Eady, director of corporate finance for the British Columbia Securities Commission. Canadian regulators rarely get complaints from victims, because most of them are in the United States. And U.S. regulators are wary of trying to crack down on companies based in Canada.

"It becomes inherently more difficult to investigate and to prosecute when it is cross-border," Eady said. "It lengthens everything by a factor of at least 100 percent."

Though the scams are often small-scale, they can give Vancouver a bad reputation for all business dealings, he said. "These perpetrators should not feel they can reside in one place, victimize people in other places, and get away with it."

But they do. The gathering of suspect characters in Vancouver is encouraged by Canada's lengthy legal procedures concerning deportation, which can forestall expulsion for years.

Critics of the extradition rules cite the case of Rakesh Saxena. The Indian-born financier was arrested in 1996 in Whistler, a British Columbia ski town, where he was on the lam from authorities in Thailand who accuse him of embezzling $88 million from the Bangkok Bank of Commerce. He has successfully fought extradition for 11 years, most of it while living in luxury accommodations in Vancouver after persuading the courts to let him pay for guards for his own house arrest.

Saxena has acknowledged attempting to arrange a coup in Sierra Leone from his house and carrying on business dealings that could be called "shady."

"There are a lot of question marks" about trading in shell companies, said Saxena, in a telephone interview from his guarded home. "I do a lot of it, European shells and Hong Kong shells, and joint ventures. Basically it's all arbitrage of buying something here and selling it there. You can say it's shady, but it's not illegal."

Canadian authorities thought they finally were going to put him on an airplane last fall, but then a military coup in Thailand restarted his appeals.

Lawyer Gary Botting, author of two textbooks on extradition, said Canada's lengthy process is intended to ensure that people are not sent to sham trials, execution or torture. He defends the system, but acknowledges that wealthy fugitives like Saxena can delay their expulsion for long periods through exhaustive appeals.

"There's a lot of money involved in the high-profile cases," he said. "There's definitely a different system for the rich who can afford counsel to explore every loophole."

Said Saxena: "You can't get a fair trial in Thailand. Canada has no right to send me there." But he insisted, "This isn't a great life. With due respect, this is not the place I would choose to live. From my perspective, it's a backwater."

It is one sought by others. Lai, for example, chose to flee to Vancouver when he heard that Chinese prosecutors were about to swoop down on him and his family in 1999. Chinese authorities say he ran an expansive smuggling operation generating many millions of dollars and bribed local officials in Xiamen, in the southeastern province of Fujian.

A special prosecuting unit in China has obtained 14 convictions and death sentences concerning the alleged scheme, eight of which have been carried out. Lai's brother died in a Chinese prison after Chinese agents had brought him to Vancouver in an unsuccessful bid to lure Lai back to China.

Lai's continued presence has been uncomfortable for the Canadian government, which wants improved trading relations with China. The government there regularly demands his return, along with several other Chinese fugitives, bank officials who also fled to Vancouver. China has pledged not to impose the death penalty on Lai, but his attorney, David Matas, said Canada should not trust promises from a country where legal safeguards are absent.

"The problem here is not the Canadian system. It's the Chinese system. If they were not torturing people and executing people, he'd be back in a shot," Matas said.

Lai, 48, listened through an interpreter. He said he is living off the contributions of friends and has lost all of the riches he once enjoyed. But he acknowledged that the laws here have let him avoid a forced return to China.

In coming to Vancouver, he said, "I think I made the right choice."

Researcher Li Jie in Beijing contributed to this report.
 
中国政府应该反省一下,为什么没有“看家”的本事。防止、惩治腐败,怎么就那么难?就没有什么措施能防止腐败贪官外逃?怎么竟然能从银行提出数亿元人民币(这恐怕在极少国家能做得到!)?
 
Canadian courts should do the same... sponsorship scandal still haunts the public... Now, it's the time to stop being cocky with the Canadian system...
 
......
你以为所有的人都走现金的途径?

最初由 ccc 发布
中国政府应该反省一下,为什么没有“看家”的本事。防止、惩治腐败,怎么就那么难?就没有什么措施能防止腐败贪官外逃?怎么竟然能从银行提出数亿元人民币(这恐怕在极少国家能做得到!)?
 
最初由 cucapila 发布
......
你以为所有的人都走现金的途径?


请教您了。如果不走现金,怎么不知去向?
 
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