Wife of fugitive banker pleads guilty

Wednesday, April 27, 2005 | 9:21 a.m.

The wife of a fugitive Chinese banker who helped embezzle nearly $500 million from the Bank of China pleaded guilty Tuesday in Las Vegas to unlawfully procuring U.S. citizenship and naturalization.

In a plea agreement with the Justice Department, Yu Xuhui, 36, agreed to fully cooperate with the governments of the United States, China, Hong Kong and Canada in ongoing investigations of the immigration conspiracy and embezzlement at the Bank of China.

Xuhui's husband, Yu Zhendong, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty in February to racketeering charges in a U.S. federal court in Las Vegas. He was extradited to China in early April in a plea agreement that required China to promise Zhendong would not be executed, according to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

Zhendong's wife, Xuhui, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing has been scheduled for July 15, 2005.

On Sept. 11, 2004, a federal grand jury in Las Vegas returned an 11-count indictment against five Chinese nationals -- including two high-ranking Bank of China officials, their wives and Xuhui -- for conspiring and engaging in an elaborate marriage and visa fraud scheme.

The separate case against Yu Zhendong, who also worked for the Bank of China, was by far the biggest embezzlement case ever publicly disclosed by Chinese authorities. The Bank of China is one of China's four biggest state-owned commercial banks.

Zhendong pleaded guilty to conspiring to embezzle more than $500 million from the Bank of China.