Wailian Group President and Team Arrested in Shanghai Over Capital Control Evasion Allegations

Linda He (何梅), President of Wailian Group, one of China’s largest investment migration firms – particularly in the EB-5 field, where they have served more than 5,000 clients – has been arrested in Shanghai along with at least four other colleagues at Wailian, according to local news reports citing the Shanghai Police.

The Economic Investigations Unit of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau said it had “cracked” a case of “illegal foreign exchange trading” and arrested five suspects, including Linda He. The amounts involved, said the police, exceeded RMB 100 million.

Since 2016, according to the reports, Miss He and a female colleague surnamed Sun had been collecting RMB in China and paying money abroad in connection with providing intermediary services in the immigration market, thus circumventing China’s strict foreign exchange rules.

A further three employees of Wailian surnamed Wan, Gao, and Jiang, had “committed the crime of providing illegal foreign exchange for others by introducing underground banks.”

Currently, He and Sun are in criminal detention while the other three have been released on bail pending trial.

According to WeChat channel 财经之眼, insiders say the police have asked Miss He to hand over all client information gathered during decades of immigration services.