Bogus graft-busters created fake interrogation room to con victims out of money

[JeffLynne]

Bogus Chinese graft-busters created fake interrogation room in abandoned mall to con victims out of money

PUBLISHED : Monday, 19 October, 2015, 11:38pm
UPDATED : Monday, 19 October, 2015, 11:38pm

Keira Lu Huang
[email protected]

The fake interrogation room the bogus graft-busters set up in an abandoned mall. File photo

Four men in China’s Heilongjiang province set themselves up as bogus graft-busters – and even created a fake interrogation room – to con money out of frightened officials.

The province’s local newspaper Shenghuo Bao reported on Monday that police in the city of Suihua had arrested three of the four suspects for allegedly racketeering on September 28. One remains at large.

The three suspects reportedly confessed they had spent three months and more than 200,000 yuan (US$31,000) to build a fake interrogation room in an abandoned mall.

Their scheme backfired after they interrogated the head of the local Bureau of Agricultural Reclamation, Zhang Wei, in late August.

In August, Zhang had been dragged out of his apartment and shoved into a car with his head covered. His wife called police immediately before the men abducted her too. Both were then taken to the “interrogation room”.

After hours of interrogation, the men demanded 400,000 yuan to settle the case.

Police later tracked the men through a neighbour of Zhang’s. Two were arrested, one turned himself in.

 

[JeffLynne]

3 held over anti-corruption payoff scam

Shanghai Daily, October 21, 2015

Three people who built a fake interrogation center and pretended to be graft inspectors, kidnapping an official and his wife to extort money from them have been arrested in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province.

Police are looking for a fourth suspect believed to be connected to the case.

According to media reports, four people forced their way into the home of agricultural official Zhang Wei in August.

They claimed they were from the prosecutors’ office and led away the official and his wife with hoods over their heads.

The couple was driven to a building in which there was a room set up to look like an interrogation room, including a government seal on the wall.

“Two of them started to question me and came up with several issues of breaking the law. I said the issues didn’t exist, and when after a few hours they’d not got any answers, they started to get nervous,” Zhang said.

After offering to pay the men 200,000 yuan (US$31,500), the two sides agreed on 400,000 yuan, and Zhang and his wife were released to get the money.

Once free, Zhang called the police who arrested three of the suspects. Officers later discovered the suspects spent 200,000 yuan to prepare the fake interrogation room.

Since China launched a crackdown on graft in 2012, there has been a series of cases of criminals posing as anti-corruption officials to get people to hand over their ill-gotten gains.