[Intl-tobacco] Hong Kong/China: I made $7.8m a month from cigarette sales, claims `kingpin'

[Robert Weissman]

This story, full of intrigue, has great importance for understanding the
international smuggling trade in tobacco.

-- 
Robert Weissman	<rob@essential.org>
Essential Information
P.O. Box 19405, Washington, DC 20036, USA
Tel: 1-202-387-8030
Fax: 1-202-234-5176
www.essential.org

I made $7.8m a month from cigarette sales, claims `kingpin'
by Agence France-Presse
Source: Hong Kong iMail, Saturday, 7/14/01

VANCOUVER:  Alleged smuggling kingpin Lai Changxing testified at a refugee
hearing on Thursday that he made more than US$1 million (HK$7.8 million) a
month through illegal cigarette sales in China, but kept no records of the
sales.

``I just remember the amount of the business,'' Lai said through a
translator, disputing earlier testimony that former employees in his
companies had admitted forging documents.

Lai, considered the most wanted man in China, and his wife, Tsang Mingna,
who arrived in Canada in 1999, are seeking refugee status to avoid being
extradited to China where he faces smuggling charges.

He claims that if he is sent back, Beijing will execute him. He previously
claimed his operations in China were legal.

Lai claimed last week he was the middleman in a multi-tiered reselling
transaction, buying cigarettes from British American Tobacco (BAT) and
then reselling them to Chinese companies operated by the government and
military, including the navy and the army. Because China was buying such
massive quantities of cigarettes, BAT sold them at a cheaper price than to
buyers in other Asian countries, he said.

The cigarette business was just a small portion of Lai's empire, which at
one point was worth 1.2 billion yuan (HK$1.13 billion) and employed 600
workers in Hong Kong and Xiamen. His defence claims the business was
inextricably linked to the Chinese government.

Canadian government lawyers presented as evidence interrogation reports
from three people arrested by Chinese authorities, detailing how they
forged customs invoices and shipping records.