China Launders Cash of Foreign Criminals

According to a con man who laundered millions in China, the country is now "a universal, international gateway for all manner of scams"

People are reflected on a glass case displaying a poster featuring a 100 dollar Hong Kong colonial bank note in Hong Kong on March 2, 2016. AP Photo/Kin Cheung

ASHDOD, Israel—Gilbert Chikli was rolling in money, stolen from some of the world’s biggest corporations. His targets: Accenture. Disney. American Express. In less than two years, he made off with at least 6.1 million euros from France alone.

But he had a problem. He couldn’t spend the money. A tangle of banking rules designed to stop con men like him stood between Chikli and his cash. He needed to find a weak link in the global financial system, a place to make his stolen money appear legitimate.

He found it in China.

Gilbert Chikli, 50, and his wife Shirly Chikli, 31, at their home in Ashdod, Israel, on March 28, 2016. Chikli, a visionary fraudster, ripped off some of the world's biggest corporations, and then laundered millions in China, which is serving as a massive money laundering machine for foreign criminals, an AP investigation has found. AP Photo/Oded Balilty