Qiao Jianjun is one of China's most hunted eco-criminals and is accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars as the head of a state-owned company in the Chinese grain industry. He left China for the United States in 2011 and later came to Sweden. He lived here under a different name until he was arrested in June 2018. 

After a year in custody, Qiao Jianjun was released after the Supreme Court tried the issue of extradition to China. HD felt he could not be released as he risked torture or the death penalty. 

Suspected of money laundering in the United States 

But soon he was arrested again as the US also wants him extradited for, among other things, money laundering crimes. The suspicion is that he bought real estate in the US with money that he is accused of embezzling. 

Now the Supreme Court has re-examined the matter and decided that it can be released to the United States. On March 26, the government decided that Qiao Jianjun should be deported to the United States, with the requirement that he not be transferred to another state. He himself has always denied crime. 

- He thinks it's upsetting that he should now be released. And I have never in any suspected eco-crime seen as inferior evidence as the Chinese in this case, says his lawyer Henrik Olsson Lilja. 

Required at half a billion SEK 

According to a decision on attachment in Södertörn district court, Qiao Jianjun of 358 million Chinese yuan - about half a billion Swedish kronor - is required by the grain company he was the manager of. That is the sum that the company should have lost in the fraud charges that Qiao Jianjun is accused of participating in, for his own part he should have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on it. 

The coronavirus makes it difficult to expel 

The United States received the decision in early April. In normal cases, a country has a month to pick up the one to be expelled. However, because of the disruptions in the communications due to the corona virus, the government believes that there are special reasons to extend the deadline to two months.  

With the prevailing entry ban to the US for travelers from the Schengen area and almost no scheduled air services between Europe and the US, it remains to be seen how and if the deportation can take place. If it is not implemented within two months, Qiao Jianjun must be released.