The Nevada indictment said that from 1991 to 2004 the former bank managers created several shell corporations in Hong Kong and funneled the bank's money into these front companies as well as numerous personal bank and investment accounts. They then laundered the stolen proceeds through Canada and the United States, partly through Las Vegas casino accounts.

    All five defendants were also engaging in monetary transactions with stolen money, transportation of stolen money, passport fraud and visa fraud, said the indictment published by U.S. crime reporting Web site.

    Xu Chaofan's U.S. lawyer, Mitchell Posin, said his client is not guilty and would fight the charges.

    U.S. officials praised the cooperation of overseas legal bodies in putting together a case which Fisher called a "complex scheme of racketeering, money laundering and fraud."

    "Investigators were able to piece together the complex scheme of racketeering, money laundering and fraud charged in this indictment because of the extensive cooperation we received from our law enforcement partners overseas," Fisher said in a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

    "We will continue to work closely with our international partners to make sure that the United States is never seen as a haven for criminals to launder the proceeds of their illegal conduct."

    Yu Zhendong, who fled the mainland with the two other managers in 2001, was sentenced by the Nevada court in April 2004 to 12 years'inprisonment for illegally entering the United States, illegal immigration and laundering money. Yu, 41, was repatriated to China one year later, after receiving assurances from Chinese and U.S. authorities that he would not be jailed for more than 12 years or executed. Yu Zhendong went on trial for embezzlement of public funds last August in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province. A verdict has yet to be rendered.

    Yu Zhendong was the first corrupt official to have been repatriated to China after fleeing abroad.

    Meanwhile, Yu Zhendong's true wife, Yu Xuhui (aka Fion Yu), pleaded guilty April 26, 2005, to unlawfully procuring U.S. citizenship. She has agreed to voluntarily relinquish her American citizenship, but is permitted to remain in the United States with the couple's children so long as she does not commit another crime.

    Yu Zhendong's fake American wife, Shanna Yu Ma (aka Yu Shuzhan) also pleaded guilty to submitting a false statement to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, now part of the Department of Homeland Security, in support of Yu Xuhui's application for naturalization. Like Yu Xuhui, Shanna Yu Ma's sentencing has been delayed as she continues cooperating in this investigation.

    (Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)