因为其人拒不出庭，潜逃出境， 2003年西雅图法院对其和其妻子二人发出正式逮捕令

Steven Ng-Sheong Cheung, because of his adventure with the legal system – not despite it – sets a high standard for economists. The economics profession is often accused of concocting clever theories that don't resonate in the lives of real people. Professor Cheung devised a theory about man's struggle with corruption and governments. He wrote about his theory, with relish. The US government shone a spotlight on Professor Cheung's thoughts, when it issued a warrant for his arrest.

Back in 1996 Professor Cheung – who was then head of the University of Hong Kong's School of Economics and Finance, and an economist at the University of Washington in Seattle, in the US – published a paper called A Simplistic General Equilibrium Theory of Corruption, in the journal Contemporary Economic Policy.

The very first sentence of that paper says: "The author's simplistic view of corruption is that all politicians and government officials – like everyone else – are constrained self-maximizers. They therefore establish or maintain regulations and controls with the intent to facilitate corruption, which then becomes a source of income for them."

Professor Cheung dives deep into the matter. A few pages later he explains: "I made the now famous statement that it is no use to put a beautiful woman in my bedroom, naked, and ask me not to be aroused. I said that the only effective way of getting rid of corruption is to get rid of the controls and regulations that give rise to corruption opportunities."

A press release issued on 25 February, 2003 by the Seattle office of the US Department of Justice bears the headline (in all uppercase letters): ARREST WARRANTS ISSUED FOR ECONOMIST AND WIFE FOR THEIR FAILURE TO APPEAR. That press release reported:

"A federal grand jury returned an indictment against the CHEUNGs on January 28, 2003. STEVEN N.S. CHEUNG was named in all thirteen counts of the indictment, charging him with Conspiracy to Defraud the United States, six counts of filing false income tax returns, and six counts of filing false foreign bank account reports."

These days Professor Cheung lives in China, where he is a newspaper columnist and blogger, having joined a new profession that enjoys almost as much public confidence and respect as his old one.

Cheungs on lam in China; arrest warrants issued

By Duff Wilson

Seattle Times staff reporter

Steven Ng Sheong Cheung, the renowned economist who taught at the University of Washington for 13 years, and his wife, Linda Su Cheung, are now fugitives in China, having failed to appear in U.S. District Court in Seattle yesterday to face tax-evasion charges.

The court immediately issued arrest warrants, while the Justice and Treasury departments began steps to seize Steven Cheung's U.S. assets, estimated at more than $10 million.

Federal prosecutor Janet Freeman said the Cheungs left Hong Kong within 48 hours of being indicted by a grand jury in Seattle on Jan. 28.

The United States has an extradition treaty with Hong Kong, a former British colony and now a special territory of China.

Steven Cheung, 67, a naturalized U.S. citizen, is accused of six counts of filing false tax returns and six counts of failing to report foreign bank accounts, punishable by up to 83 years in prison and $4.75 million in fines. Linda Su Cheung, 56, is charged with one count of conspiracy, punishable by five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Steven Cheung issued a statement from China saying he will not return to the United States because he couldn't get a fair trial. The statement, titled "The True Story of Fake Antiques (Or How Steven N.S. Cheung Has Been Framed)," blamed The Seattle Times and government officials for conspiracy and character assassination.

The Seattle Times reported Jan. 26 that items certified to be antiques sold by a prominent Seattle art gallery called Thesaurus Fine Arts were, in fact, modern replicas and worth much less. Although he first denied it, Steven Cheung is the founder of the gallery and a Hong Kong testing laboratory that certified that two antiques were the real thing.

In his statement, Steven Cheung again claims that the two objects are legitimate but had been refired in a kiln to make them test as new. The assertion has been dismissed by the world's leading labs, which had tested the pieces for the newspaper.

The Thesaurus gallery has closed, leaving dozens of unhappy customers with many complaints. The state Attorney General's Office and the Federal Trade Commission have launched investigations into deceptive trade practices.

Freeman said yesterday that the nearly four-year investigation in the tax case is separate from the antiques case, although Thesaurus Fine Arts was one of 11 companies a federal grand jury says Steven Cheung had set up to hide money.

Freeman and the IRS are appealing to anyone with information about unusual activity surrounding Cheung's U.S. assets to call a special Justice Department number, 206-553-7834.

Robert McCallum and Allen Bentley, Seattle attorneys for Steven and Linda Cheung, respectively, told federal magistrate Ricardo Martinez yesterday they weren't sure if they were still representing the Cheungs. Martinez refused to consider any defense motions, including one to dismiss charges against Linda Cheung, unless they appeared in court.

Martinez signed the arrest warrants at the end of a 10-minute court hearing.

Freeman said the government will seek to arrest the Cheungs through "diplomatic channels."

An associate of Steven Cheung's in Hong Kong, who asked not to be identified, says the pair are in China to avoid arrest and expect the U.S. to seize about $9 million in property and $2 million in bank accounts.

Steven Cheung immigrated to Canada in 1957 and then to the United States, where he got a doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles. He taught at the University of Washington from 1969 to 1982 and still owns a $1.1 million home here and real estate throughout the state.

While the U.S. and China have no extradition treaty, authorities in both countries have recently tried to improve their cooperation on international crime. In 1999, China arrested two Vietnamese wanted in an execution-style slaying in Boston. China sent them to Hong Kong, where they could be extradited to the United States. Last month, a senior FBI official said the United States was trying to figure out a way to return to China two people wanted for embezzling funds from the Bank of China.

But Steven Cheung is famous in China, touted by the Beijing press as a candidate for the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Some high-profile fugitives have dodged arrest for decades of self-imposed exile. Fugitive financier Robert Vesco has lived in Cuba for 20 years; British train robber Ronnie Biggs lived in Brazil for 35 years, although he returned to England and was jailed in 2001; and movie director Roman Polanski, convicted of unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl, has lived in Europe for the past 25 years.

Duff Wilson: 206-464-2288 or dwilson@seattletimes.com

U.S. Consulate General Press Releases (2003)
Eminent Economist and Wife Indicted on Tax Charges

News Release
January 29, 2003
Wednesday

U.S. Department of Justice

United States Attorney
Western District of Washington
601 Union Street, Suite 5100
Seattle, Washington 98101-3903

Tel: (206) 553-7970
Fax: (206) 553-0882

January 28, 2003

EMINENT ECONOMIST AND WIFE INDICTED ON TAX CHARGES

John McKay, United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington, and Steven Pasholk, Special Agent in Charge of the Seattle Field Office of Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations, announced today that a federal grand jury in Seattle returned a 13-count indictment against STEVEN N. S. CHEUNG, a prominent economist with residences in Seattle and Hong Kong. His wife, LINDA SU CHEUNG, is named in one count of conspiracy. The indictment charges that the CHEUNGs conspired to defraud the Internal Revenue Service beginning as early as August 5, 1989, and continuing through the present. Further, STEVEN N. S. CHEUNG is charged with six counts of filing false U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns (Forms 1040) with the Internal Revenue Service for the tax years 1993 through 1998, and he is charged with six counts of filing false foreign bank account reports for the years 1995 through 2000.

The indictment alleges the following:

During most of the time in which the conspiracy existed, STEVEN N.S. CHEUNG was employed at the University of Hong Kong as a Professor of Economics. LINDA SU CHEUNG primarily lived in the United States at her and her husband's residence in Seattle, Washington.

STEVEN N.S. CHEUNG was also the actual and beneficial owner of profitable businesses in Hong Kong. Some of these businesses operated public parking lots throughout Hong Kong. As such, these commercial parking lots, which numbered in excess of fifty at any one time, generated tens of millions of dollars in gross receipts annually. These businesses included, among others, WEST COAST INTERNATIONAL (a sole proprietorship), and WEST COAST INTERNATIONAL (PARKING) LIMITED and its parent, WEST COAST INTERNATIONAL LIMITED. United States citizens are required to report on their U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns (Forms 1040) all income, including their worldwide income, from whatever source derived, to include: wages, salaries, interest, dividends, bonuses, rental income, gross income from a business, and compensation for services rendered, such as fees, commissions, fringe benefits, and similar items.

From at least 1989 through 1998, STEVEN N.S. CHEUNG derived millions of dollars of income from and through his parking lot operations and other business sources in Hong Kong. As his wife, LINDA SU CHEUNG derived part of this income as her one-half share of the marital assets in the State of Washington, a community property state. Although a significant portion of their income remained in Hong Kong, the Defendants transferred a substantial amount of this income to the United States which was utilized by them, and by others on their behalf, to acquire valuable assets, properties, and investments in Western Washington and elsewhere, and to support the Defendants' living expenses and lifest<x>yles here and abroad.

To this end, the CHEUNGS took corporate funds from the Hong Kong parking lots and other business operations for themselves and their nominees. The disbursement of corporate funds in this manner conferred an economic value and benefit to the Defendants and produced an accession to wealth, which gain they never reported or included as income on their federal tax returns in the United States.

The ob<x>jectives of the conspiracy were to conceal, and attempt to conceal, from the CHEUNGS' American tax advisors and the Internal Revenue Service the actual or beneficial ownership by STEVEN N.S. CHEUNG of the parking lot operations and other businesses in Hong Kong and, thus, to disguise taxable income derived by the Defendants and not report this income on their tax returns in the United States.

The CHEUNGS, and others on their behalf, utilized a web of corporations and other entities in Hong Kong, the Marshall Islands, the British Virgin Islands, and the United States, including the following: WEST COAST INTERNATIONAL (PARKING) LIMITED; WEST COAST INTERNATIONAL LIMITED; CELINAL LIMITED MARSHALL ISLANDS; CELINAL LIMITED BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS; IMPERIAL WEST INC.; YINKAY HERITAGE INC.; STEVEN N.S. CHEUNG, INC.; WEST COAST LAND INVESTMENTS INC.; IMPERIAL GARDEN INC.; DOW ELCO INC., and; THESAURUS FINE ARTS INC.

Further, the indictment alleges that STEVEN N.S. CHEUNG filed false Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARs) for the years 1995 through 2000. The forms were false in that he reported only one foreign bank account, and that he failed to report his financial interest in and signature authority over several additional foreign bank and financial accounts, located in Hong Kong, which had a total maximum value exceeding $10,000 during the calendar year.

Finally, the indictment alleges STEVEN N.S. CHEUNG filed false income tax returns by understating his total income during each of the years charged. It is alleged that STEVEN N.S. CHEUNG omitted millions of dollars of income, as derived from and through the profitable parking lot operations in Hong Kong, from his income tax returns from 1993 through 1998.

"This is another example of how the IRS is actively pursuing the use of offshore financial arrangements in order to avoid tax," said Special Agent in Charge of the Seattle Field Office Steven Pasholk. "All Americans have a duty to pay their fair share."

United States Attorney John McKay extends his utmost appreciation to the Hong Kong authorities at the Hong Kong Department of Justice, International Law Division, and the Hong Kong Police Force, Commercial Criminal Bureau, for their remarkable assistance to the United States authorities in the investigation of this matter and for their exceptional professionalism in the performance of their law enforcement duties. Mr. McKay added that United States citizenship provides privileges and advantages to all Americans, here and abroad, of which all Americans share a responsibility to pay for such benefits.

The maximum statutory penalties for each of the counts upon conviction are:

Conspiracy to Defraud the Internal Revenue Service: five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine;
Filing False Income Tax Returns: three years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine, plus the costs of prosecution;
Filing False Foreign Bank Account Reports: ten years imprisonment and a $500,000 fine.

The public is reminded that an indictment contains only allegations, and that both Defendants are presumed innocent and must be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Copies of the indictment, which is a public document, may be obtained at the American Consulate in Hong Kong.

For further information, please contact Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney John Hartingh at (206) 553-4110 or Assistant U.S. Attorney Janet Freeman at (206) 553-7970.

太精彩了，茶水板凳都准备好啊，看看这个片子在西雅图的臭名昭著毁四邻的系列诈骗：

Thesaurus becomes synonym for 'fake': More gallery items checked; none appear legit
By Duff Wilson and Sheila Farr
Seattle Times staff reporters
Series online


The full Seattle Times investigative series "The Art of Deception."

When Jamie Lutton bought a small stone statue from a Pioneer Square gallery, she was thrilled. The gallery, Thesaurus Fine Arts, had dated the artifact as being from Neolithic China — made before 1000 B.C. — and it sold for only $600.
Lutton recently took the figurine from a shelf in her Seattle home, dropped it into a box and mailed it to The Seattle Times.

"I am sure now it is a near-worthless copy, only interesting because of the story behind it," Lutton said.

Lutton, owner of Twice Sold Tales used-book store on Capitol Hill, was one of nearly a dozen unhappy Thesaurus customers, from Ecuador to Indiana, who contacted The Times after a Jan. 26 story that reported the store was selling fakes.

Last week, some of those customers met with a former Seattle Art Museum curator who evaluated 17 Chinese antiques purchased from Thesaurus, many at steep discounts. His expert opinion: The pieces were all fakes.

A vase originally priced at $8,000 and purchased for $5,600 would legitimately sell for about $100, John Stevenson said. Lutton's $600 statue, he said, is worth "five bucks."

No one from the store would comment on the latest findings. The store has been closed since the original Times story ran two weeks ago, and is under investigation by both the Washington state Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive trade practices. The U.S. Customs Service closed its case on Thesaurus on Thursday, saying alleged consumer fraud was not a Customs case.

The Internet auction site eBay deleted all of Thesaurus' items on Thursday. The Web site reads, "This seller is not currently offering any auctions for sale."

A doctor, a professor, an archaeologist and a business leader are among the Thesaurus buyers who apparently got taken.

A bad investment

Dorr Tippens, 52, of Seattle, spent more than $30,000 on goods from the store and said he thought of the purchases as an investment. He has receipts for most of them.

Tippens said Edith Crighton, the store manager and Thesaurus president, told him some items he purchased were from the owner's personal collection.

"She said, 'If I were you, I would grab these,' " Tippens recalled.

Tippens met Tuesday with four investigators, contacted an attorney and hopes "some good might come of this."

Stevenson, an expert in Asian art and the former acting assistant curator of Chinese art at the Seattle Art Museum, evaluated 15 of Tippens' pieces. Every one of them is a modern reproduction, he said. "Nothing is remotely right."

Two of the pieces were well-crafted and might be worth as much as $100, but the others, costing as much as $5,600 each, were simply bad reproductions, Stevenson said.

'Taken in'

Dr. Chris Leininger, chief information officer for Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, paid $1,500 last year for an urn that Thesaurus said was from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Stevenson said it was "absolutely new" and worth less than $200.

"I'm rarely taken in by things," Leininger said. "I was by this one."

He was convinced, he said, because the price wasn't too low, the object wasn't too rare, and Crighton was believable.

Other buyers bought through Thesaurus' eBay operation. Users of the auction site rely on feedback to assess the reliability of buyers and sellers. Thesaurus has praise from 89 buyers and criticism from only one.

But several people who left praise on eBay now say they were cheated.

Joseph Martin, a retired university professor in Richmond, Ind., said he paid about $2,000 three years ago for a Chinese vase purported to be from the 18th century. At the time, he wrote on eBay: "An excellent seller. Goods delivered promptly and exactly as described."

Thesaurus praised him as a buyer: "A+ customer!"

Now Martin uses a different term for the store: "these fraudulent creeps." He's sending the vase to the Indianapolis Museum of Art for evaluation.

Facing charges

Steven Ng Sheong Cheung, a renowned economist, former University of Washington professor and Hong Kong newspaper columnist, is part owner and the key figure behind Thesaurus, and still insists the antiques are real.

Cheung says he will return to Seattle by Feb. 20 to plead not guilty to federal tax-evasion charges. Cheung, who owns homes in Seattle, Hong Kong and Shanghai, is accused of hiding millions of dollars through tax shelters and a web of companies, including Thesaurus.

Cheung is believed to own more than $12 million in U.S. real estate and other interests.

While investigating Thesaurus, The Times purchased a "Tang Dynasty" teapot and a "Ming Dynasty" tile and had them tested by two of the world's foremost laboratories. Both tests indicated that the objects were recently made, contradicting test certificates by two Hong Kong labs that the store had provided.

One of those labs was set up by Cheung.

At a Hong Kong news conference, Cheung accused a Seattle Times reporter of being an agent for the Internal Revenue Service. He claimed the newspaper or a mailing service had reheated the antiques to make them appear to be new. Hong Kong media described Cheung's behavior at the news conference as "bizarre."

Customer complaints

Most Thesaurus customers had no direct contact with Cheung, but some corresponded with him concerning their complaints.

Identifying himself merely as "Steve of Thesaurus," Cheung had told William Klebous of Australia that there was "zero chance" two "Neolithic" erotic jades he'd purchased were inauthentic. But independent experts told Klebous otherwise.

He got his money back, but Klebous was the only eBay buyer to leave a negative comment on the site: "FAKE."

Thesaurus responded, "Non-sense!"

Other eBay buyers, such as Michael Jolly, say they had no trouble getting refunds from Thesaurus when they determined that their purchases were fakes, but were still out the cost of the shipping and thermoluminescence (TL) testing, which can cost up to $500. TL tests can determine the approximate age of ceramic objects.

Jolly had left nine compliments about Thesaurus on eBay before he learned they weren't selling what they claimed.

James Judge, a U.S. citizen, archaeologist and art-gallery owner who has lived in Ecuador since 1969, said he paid $4,900 for two ceramic "Han Dynasty" (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) horses and a jade sword from Thesaurus' eBay auctions. He had the horses tested by the world's leading lab, Oxford Authentication in England. They were modern.

"They returned my money and let me keep the items," Judge said. "I guess I was lucky."

Another buyer, Ian McLachlan, said he bought a piece knowing it was a fake, just because he liked it. Formerly a professor at the University of Hong Kong and now at Trent University in Ontario, McLachlan said his first purchase from Thesaurus was a bowl that two museum curators said was probably authentic.

"The second one I bought knowing it to be a fake. A real one would be a couple of million, not $250," he wrote. "It's a good fake and it gives me a lot of pleasure."

But McLachlan grew angry with Cheung because, he said, "I couldn't get him to admit it was a fake. It was so obvious and quite absurd. In the end, I decided to have nothing more to do with him."

Sondra Goehle, a medical research technician supervisor in Seattle, bought about eight items at Thesaurus, from a $75 pitcher to a $1,500 fluted vase.

After she bought the pitcher, she noticed that more of the same appeared on the store's shelves. Goehle said, "That put me on to the fact that these are being cranked out somewhere in China."

Duff Wilson: 206-464-2288 or dwilson@seattletimes.com

Sheila Farr: 206-464-2270 or sfarr@seattletimes.com

西雅图报纸链接：

http://old.seattletimes.com/news/local/links/chinese_art/

精彩连环，好戏高潮迭起