After 20 years on run Han Lu arrested from Africa

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Han Lu who was on Interpol’s red notice, was arrested from Africa two decades after he fled the country. He is accused of swindling 300 million yuan (45 million US dollars), CCTV reported.

Han put his fingerprint on the arrest warrant issued by the procuration department at Changsha Huanghua International Airport, Hunan Province on Thursday evening. Han is the third fugitive national staff to be nabbed by Hunan Province from abroad this year.

Han served as a senior employee of a Hunan-based company and was deputed as general manager at the foreign branch of the company. For one year, from 1996 to 1997, Han used the name of a Shanghai trade company and a Hunan import and export corporation to swindle millions of dollars.

He entrusted several import agents to purchase goods from a Hong Kong industrial corporation, which were actually controlled by himself. He requested import agents to apply for 14 pieces of irrevocable letter of credit (LC) from different domestic banks based in China in favor with his Hong Kong industrial corporation.

Han Lu signs on the arrest warrant at Changshang Huanghua International Airport, Hunan Province, China, on August 24. /CCTV Photo

Han shipped goods with value around 20,000 US dollars to Shanghai in order to get the statements to accept LCs. Then he successfully accepted all the 14 pieces of LCs at the bank and disappeared. This resulted 45 million US dollars' loss to banks and agents. Hu's case was under investigation and on file since April of 1997.

China launched anti-graft operation “Sky Net” in 2015 to tackle corruption, track down overseas suspects and bust underground banks. The campaign involves several government departments, including the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and China's central bank.

The police from Hunan flew to Africa to track down Han. It coordinated with Africa’s police. Han was finally arrested and brought back to China.

A Interpol red notice is a request to track and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition. It is issued by the General Secretariat at the request of a member country or an international tribunal based on a valid national arrest warrant.

After the Interpol red notice is published, it informs all 190 Interpol member countries. The China’s ongoing anti-corruption drive has already led to the conviction of many “tigers,” or high-ranking officials, and many more minor officials, known as “flies.”

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