By Aubrey Belford, Kevin G. Hall, and Martin Young
Cary Yan and his associate Gina Zhou in a file photo from 2019 during an interview in Majuro. Photo: Hilary Hosia
A pair of Chinese scam artists wanted to turn a radiation-soaked Pacific atoll into a future metropolis. They ended up in an American jail instead. How they got there is an untold tale of international bribery and grifting that stretched to the very center of the United Nations.
A new OCCRP investigation reveals details of how Chinese-born fraudsters, Cary Yan and Gina Zhou, paid more than $US1 million to UN diplomats to gain access to its headquarters in New York, before embarking on a controversial plan to set up an autonomous zone near an important U.S. military facility in the Pacific Ocean.
RNZ Pacific's News Editor, Koroi Hawkins, spoke with the OCCRP's Aubrey Belford
Yan and Zhou were sentenced by a U.S. court earlier this year over a plot to bribe Marshall Islands politicians to create an autonomous zone just 200 kilometres across open water from Kwajalein Atoll, where the U.S. Army runs facilities that test intercontinental ballistic missiles and track foreign rocket launches.
The main U.S. military site in the Marshall Islands' Kwajalein Atoll seen in the distance from the nearby island of Ebeye Photo: Aubrey Belford / OCCRP
OCCRP reporters found the plan was just the final step in a global grifting odyssey by the pair, whose multi-million dollar schemes included a miracle water cure and cryptocurrencies. They were able to gain access to the U.N. thanks to payments made to diplomats and fixers including the staff of the former president of the U.N. General Assembly, an alleged Chinese agent, and a disgraced ambassador then already under investigation by the FBI in a separate case.
The pair's efforts saw them take over and rebrand a charity affiliated to the U.N., and set up a flashy office in Midtown Manhattan. Yan, Zhou, and associates were able to organize events within the U.N. headquarters and met with officials, diplomats, and leaders from at least 17 countries.
Gina Zhou (left) and Cary Yan (centre) at a restaurant in New York Photo: World Organization of Governance and Competitiveness
The former president of the Marshall Islands, Hilda Heine, told OCCRP the pair's failed plan was unconstitutional and threatened to fracture her country, an independent nation in free association with the United States. Yan and Zhou carried Marshall Islands passports, but Heine said her government was unable to determine how they had obtained citizenship.
While Yan and Zhou appeared to be motivated by financial gain, OCCRP reporters found that by the time they were carrying out their Marshall Islands plan, the couple was also openly promoting the foreign policy interests of China's government.
Eryn Schornick, a Washington, DC-based transnational financial crime expert, told OCCRP that Yan and Zhou are part of what appears to be a growing trend of Chinese criminals who seek to associate themselves with the U.N. and surrounding NGOs to use the body's legitimacy to promote themselves and their business ventures.
Behind these scammers are often powerful interests, including those with apparent links to the Chinese state and organized crime, Schornick said.
The OCCRP investigation raises concerns about influence-peddling at the U.N. and shows how the global body can be hijacked for questionable ends.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is one of the largest investigative journalism organizations in the world, with staff across six continents and hubs in Washington, D.C., Amsterdam, and Sarajevo. By developing and equipping a global network of investigative journalists and publishing their stories, OCCRP exposes crime and corruption so the public can hold power to account.