Chinese Fraud Victim Recovers USD 50,000 with Help of U.S. Law Officials

Posted on Sep 15, 2005

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Legal Attaché office in Beijing, in cooperation with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, yesterday returned $50,000.00 U.S. dollars to Ms. Peng Ai-ping, a Chinese citizen and resident of Guangzhou, China who was a victim of advance loan fee/Ponzi scheme fraud.

In 2003 Richard A. Parker, an 80-year-old Laguna Niguel man, admitted that from 1993 to January 2002 that he and others fraudulently collected more than $17 million in advance fees from victim-borrowers in the United States and around the world by falsely promising to provide billions of dollars in loans. Mr. Parker was convicted October 27, 2003 in United States District Court in Santa Ana of conspiring to conduct an advance loan fee/Ponzi scheme that defrauded U.S. and foreign individuals of millions of dollars. Parker was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In mid-2003 the Ministry of Public Security, International Cooperation Department, sought the FBI’s assistance in recovering Ms. Peng’s money from Mr. Parker. The FBI Legal Attaché in Beijing notified the Department of Justice United States Attorney Office and began the process to assist Ms. Peng. Ms. Peng, with the aid of the U.S. Victim/Witness Assistance program, recovered part of her loss from funds the U.S. Government seized from Mr. Parker.

United States and Chinese law enforcement authorities are working in close cooperation to combat this and other type of crime. The return of these seized funds is a direct result of the increased and mutually beneficial cooperation between the United States and China.