MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s office has started to assess China’s Skynet operation aimed at tracking down corrupt officials on the run and confiscating their ill-gotten assets, a source in the office said.
"The Prosecutor General’s office has been taking great interest in the Skynet operation that allowed China to bring back over 1,000 suspected corrupt officials and a huge amount of their assets," Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Malinovsky said at a meeting of the prosecution services heads of BRICS member states chaired by Chinese Prosecutor General Cao Jianming.
The Skynet operation, launched in April 2015, involved a number of government ministries and other state agencies that have been carrying out comprehensive work using police, investigative, diplomatic, financial and other methods in order to hunt down corrupt officials, cancel forged certificates, abolish underground banks, confiscate illegal assets and bring back fugitive corrupt officials. The Skynet operation was preceded by the Fox Hunt operation conducted in 2014, which led to 680 people suspected of economic crimes to be extradited back to China.
According to the media, during the Skynet operation, more than 1,000 suspects have been brought back to China including 850 suspected bribe-takers. Of those, 212 individuals were targeted for investigation in cases involving embezzlement exceeding 10 mln yuan (roughly $1.45 mln), some had been hiding for over five years while one had been fugitive for 21 years. The operation encompassed 60 countries.