Professional wealth advisers connect clients to remittance firms that rely on customer trust—and sometimes criminal cash.
专业财富顾问为客户与汇款公司牵线搭桥，这些公司依赖客户的信任，有时甚至是犯罪现金。

Photographer: Panther Media GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo

2023年10月8日

Imagine trusting your life savings to a group of strangers you know only via WhatsApp. Some affluent Chinese people are willing to make that gamble to get part of their wealth out of the mainland. Take 32-year-old Phoebe, who recently moved almost a million yuan ($137,000). To do it, she first had to transfer her money into the account of a local facilitator. Then, Phoebe, who requested to be identified by only her first name because of privacy and legal concerns, had to sit tight.
想象一下，把毕生积蓄托付给一群通过 WhatsApp 才认识的陌生人。一些富裕的中国人愿意做这样的赌博，将他们的部分财富带出中国大陆。以 32 岁的菲比为例，她最近转移了近一百万元人民币（约合 13.7 万美元）。为了做到这一点，她首先要把钱转到当地一家中介公司的账户上。然后，出于隐私和法律方面的考虑，菲比只要求透露自己的名字，但她不得不坐立不安。

A few tense hours later, transactions began to pop piecemeal into a separate account she holds in Hong Kong. While the city has been stripped of many of the political freedoms it used to enjoy, it still occupies a unique place in China’s financial ecosystem as the only area with unfettered access to global capital markets. Once cash is there, it can go anywhere.
几个紧张的小时后，交易开始零散地进入她在香港持有的一个独立账户。虽然香港被剥夺了许多曾经享有的政治自由，但作为唯一一个可以不受限制地进入全球资本市场的地区，它在中国的金融生态系统中仍然占据着独特的地位。现金一旦到了那里，就可以去任何地方。

The funds that appeared in Phoebe’s account came from 10 people in total—one of whom deposited the equivalent of $1,300 in notes via an ATM. The transaction moved through an informal, unregulated system known around the world as hawala. On one side of the administrative border between the mainland and Hong Kong, Phoebe handed over her money to members of her facilitator’s network; on the other side, the transaction was mirrored by others in the network who dropped money into her account. The entire operation was dependent on faith. But Phoebe’s wait wasn’t quite as nerve-jangling as you might expect: She’d been referred to the remittance agency—which is illegal in China—by her established, well-­regarded wealth manager introduced via mutual connections.
出现在菲比账户中的资金总共来自 10 个人--其中一人通过自动取款机存入了相当于 1300 美元的纸币。这笔交易是通过一种非正式的、不受监管的系统进行的，这种系统在世界上被称为 "哈瓦拉"。在大陆和香港行政边界的一侧，菲比将钱交给她的协助者网络成员；在另一侧，交易被网络中的其他人复制，他们将钱存入她的账户。整个操作都依赖于信任。不过，菲比的等待并不像你想象的那样令人紧张：她是通过相互关系认识的知名理财经理介绍给汇款机构的，而汇款机构在中国是非法的。

Since international borders reopened post-pandemic, advisers to the rich report a surge in demand for overseas backup options. Crackdowns on ideologically out-of-favor industries, uncertainty over geopolitical tensions and Xi Jinping’s push for “common prosperity” have spooked the rich and even the middle class. In addition, the domestic economy looks increasingly dire. Exports are struggling, house prices are falling, and more than 1 in 5 young people are out of work. Many wealthy families feel it’s essential to have money outside the country, whether to diversify assets or to pave the way for potential future immigration.
自从大流行病后国际边界重新开放以来，富人的顾问们报告说，对海外后备方案的需求激增。对意识形态上不受欢迎的行业的打击、地缘政治紧张局势的不确定性以及习近平推动的 "共同富裕 "令富人甚至中产阶级感到恐慌。此外，国内经济也日益严峻。出口举步维艰，房价下跌，五分之一以上的年轻人失业。许多富裕家庭认为，无论是为了分散资产，还是为将来可能的移民铺平道路，都必须在国外拥有资金。

On the Move 移动中

Number of people from China projected to move to selected nations
预计从中国迁往选定国家的人数

Source: Juwai IQI 来源：Juwai IQIJuwai IQI

Projections are based on the share of total migration to each nation from China in recent years.
预测依据的是近年来从中国向各国移民的总人数比例。

Traditional havens still hold their allure—think a condo in Vancouver or US equity investments—but over the past two years Singapore has increasingly emerged as a favored ­destination. In the stable, low-tax city-state where Mandarin is one of the official languages, signs of the influx of Chinese cash are everywhere. Nightclub tables fetch as much as $70,000 an evening during the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix, trendy wine bars for Chinese billionaires abound, and there’s been an explosion in the number of family offices managing the assets of the rich.
传统的避风港仍然具有诱惑力--想想温哥华的公寓或美国的股票投资，但在过去两年里，新加坡日益成为人们青睐的目的地。在这个稳定、低税率的城市国家，普通话是官方语言之一，中国资金涌入的迹象随处可见。在一级方程式新加坡大奖赛（F1 Singapore Grand Prix）期间，夜总会的桌子每晚售价高达 70,000 美元，中国亿万富翁的时尚酒吧比比皆是，管理富人资产的家族办公室数量激增。

Yet opportunities to move cash legitimately from China are severely limited, with individuals normally allowed to wire only $50,000 a year overseas. They also have a one-time opportunity to move their money when they emigrate. Plugging the gap is where the underground networks come into play. “These agencies have sprouted to meet soaring demand,” says Joel Gallo, an adjunct professor of finance at New York University Shanghai. “They act as quasi-banking firms, yet operate without the scrutiny of one and adroitly engage in regulatory arbitrage by standing in a gray zone.”
然而，从中国合法转移现金的机会非常有限，通常情况下，个人每年只能向海外汇款 5 万美元。他们在移民时也只有一次转移资金的机会。地下网络的作用就在于填补这一空白。"纽约大学上海分校金融学兼职教授乔尔-加洛（Joel Gallo）说："这些机构如雨后春笋般涌现，以满足急剧增长的需求。"它们充当着准银行公司的角色，但却不受银行公司的监管，并通过站在灰色地带巧妙地进行监管套利"。

There’s no reliable estimate on how big the industry is, but probes disclosed by authorities suggest an enormous scale. One investigation in China’s western Gansu province uncovered an operation with 75.6 billion yuan in assets, state media reported in 2021, citing China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange. The money was spread among a network of five organizations that used more than 8,000 bank accounts across more than 20 provinces.
目前还没有关于该行业规模的可靠估计，但当局披露的调查显示其规模巨大。2021 年，国家媒体援引中国国家外汇管理局的报道称，在中国西部甘肃省进行的一项调查发现了一个拥有 756 亿元资产的组织。这些资金分散在由五个组织组成的网络中，这些组织使用的 8000 多个银行账户遍布 20 多个省份。

Featured in the October/November issue of Bloomberg Markets.Illustration: Esther Goh

The networks are truly global in scope, operating not only in Hong Kong but wherever there are significant numbers of the Chinese diaspora. It’s “highly likely” that underground banks will have pools of funds ready in key locations, so recipients can receive their cash quickly, and in the local currency, according to a 2019 intelligence assessment by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).
这些网络是真正的全球性网络，不仅在香港，而且在有大量中国侨民的任何地方都在运作。根据英国国家犯罪署（NCA）2019 年的一份情报评估，地下银行 "极有可能 "在关键地点准备好资金池，以便收款人能迅速收到现金，而且是当地货币。

Linking up with one of these money shops, though, isn’t a decision to be taken lightly. People caught using illegal currency-­exchange services in mainland China usually are fined 30% or more of the amount of money they attempted to transfer. If the sum is significant, those providing the service face significant jail time. Although the maximum penalty of a life sentence is typically handed down only when there are compounding offenses such as bribery, reports of sentences ranging from one to five years are common.
不过，与这些货币商店建立联系并不是一个轻率的决定。在中国大陆，使用非法货币兑换服务被抓的人通常会被处以试图转移金额 30% 或更高的罚款。如果金额巨大，提供服务的人将面临牢狱之灾。虽然通常只有在贿赂等复合犯罪的情况下才会判处无期徒刑的最高刑罚，但 1 至 5 年不等的刑期也屡见报端。

Although China’s capital laws don’t apply if you’re in the likes of Hong Kong, the UK or Singapore, there’s a risk of legitimate banks getting suspicious about the source of funds. A spokesperson for the Monetary Authority of Singapore says that while the city-state doesn’t implement the capital controls of other jurisdictions, the regulator requires financial institutions, including remittance agents, to detect and report suspicious transactions and behavior. Institutions are also required to mitigate reputational, legal and operational risk from activities affected by other jurisdictions’ laws.
虽然中国的资本法不适用于香港、英国或新加坡等地，但合法银行仍有可能对资金来源产生怀疑。新加坡金融管理局发言人说，虽然新加坡没有像其他司法管辖区那样实施资本管制，但监管机构要求包括汇款代理在内的金融机构发现并报告可疑交易和行为。此外，还要求各机构降低受其他司法管辖区法律影响的活动所带来的声誉、法律和运营风险。

Singapore’s banks have reason to be on especially high alert: In August authorities arrested and charged 10 people with Chinese origins with a range of crimes including money laundering. More than S$2.8 billion ($2 billion) of cash and other assets were frozen or confiscated. The allegations involve attempts to move proceeds from illicit activities such as scams and illegal gambling, not remittances.
新加坡的银行有理由保持高度警惕：8 月份，当局逮捕并指控 10 名中国籍人士犯有洗钱等一系列罪行。超过 28 亿新元（20 亿美元）的现金和其他资产被冻结或没收。这些指控涉及试图转移诈骗和非法赌博等非法活动的收益，而不是汇款。

But there is a dark side to remittance operations. To ultimately settle exchanges via hawala, Chinese underground banks regularly use cash generated by criminal groups through activities such as drug trafficking, cigarette smuggling, organized illegal immigration and human trafficking, according to the NCA. For example, a gang with operations in both China and the UK might front the money to pay a hawala recipient in London and then get paid a corresponding amount by the underground bankers in Shanghai.
但汇款业务也有黑暗的一面。据国家禁毒委员会称，为了最终通过哈瓦拉进行结算，中国地下银行经常使用犯罪团伙通过贩毒、走私香烟、有组织非法移民和贩卖人口等活动获得的现金。例如，一个同时在中国和英国开展业务的团伙可能会先行垫付资金，支付给伦敦的哈瓦拉收款人，然后由上海的地下钱庄支付相应的金额。

Chinese authorities have swatted simple options such as cash being moved in suitcases or car trunks or sailed to Hong Kong in junks.

中国当局严厉打击了一些简单的选择，例如将现金装在手提箱或汽车后备箱中转移，或者用帆船运往香港。

The British law enforcers found that Chinese student accounts were sometimes used as a back door to get money into the legitimate banking system. The NCA identified more than 100 people who’d made cash deposits into over 14,000 personal bank accounts held or set up predominantly by Chinese students. The amount of cash put into these accounts in a 12-month period totaled in excess of £100 million ($121 million), with some of the people parking more than £2.5 million each.
英国执法人员发现，中国留学生账户有时被用作将钱存入合法银行系统的后门。英国国家反诈骗局发现，有 100 多人向主要由中国留学生持有或开设的 14000 多个个人银行账户存入现金。在 12 个月的时间里，存入这些账户的现金总额超过 1 亿英镑（1.21 亿美元），其中有些人每人的存款超过 250 万英镑。

The high stakes of navigating this murky world are one reason why trusted financial professionals have emerged as go-betweens. While it could cost them their careers if caught by company compliance, private bankers under pressure from clients can step into a gray zone. Bloomberg News spoke to four financiers who discussed how the lines can be blurred. All requested anonymity to speak freely. One former private banker, who currently works at a multifamily office, describes how he’s personally been involved in moving money for wealthy clients. Another financier says he’s helped introduce clients to such services, while his firm helps rich Chinese set up variable capital ­companies—a structure used by some investment funds in Singapore that can shield the ultimate beneficiaries’ identity from the public, though regulators can see.
在这个阴暗的世界里航行的高风险是值得信赖的金融专业人士成为中间人的原因之一。如果被公司合规部门发现，私人银行家的职业生涯就会毁于一旦，但在客户的压力下，他们也可能会步入灰色地带。彭博新闻社采访了四位金融家，他们讨论了如何模糊界限。他们都要求匿名，以便畅所欲言。一位目前在一家多家族办公室工作的前私人银行家描述了他是如何亲自参与为富裕客户转移资金的。另一位金融家说，他曾帮助向客户介绍此类服务，而他的公司则帮助富有的中国人成立可变资本公司--这是新加坡一些投资基金使用的结构，可以向公众隐瞒最终受益人的身份，但监管机构可以看到。

Wealth Check 财富检查

Number of millionaires 百万富翁人数

Source: UBS Global Wealth Report 2023
资料来源资料来源：《2023 年瑞银全球财富报告

Two other private bankers at different European banks say that while on the books they can’t help clients avoid capital controls, they do pass on contact information for underground remittance agencies for close and trusted customers. Typically none of these referrers take a cut: Passing on the links is about keeping important clients happy—and potentially winning future lucrative, legitimate business. The explosion in wealth in China over the past decades means there’s plenty of potential demand. UBS Group AG, for example, estimated in its annual wealth report that there were 6.2 million Chinese with assets of more than $1 million at the end of 2022.
另外两家不同欧洲银行的私人银行家说，虽然在账面上他们不能帮助客户规避资本管制，但他们确实会向关系密切和值得信赖的客户传递地下汇款机构的联系信息。通常情况下，这些介绍人都不会从中抽成：传递联系信息是为了让重要客户满意，并有可能赢得未来利润丰厚的合法业务。过去几十年来，中国财富激增，这意味着有大量的潜在需求。例如，瑞银集团在其年度财富报告中估计，到 2022 年底，将有 620 万中国人拥有超过 100 万美元的资产。

Right now there are increasing signs that more money is looking to leave. Real estate consultant Juwai IQI said in August that it expects more than 700,000 Chinese to exit the country in the next two years. Top destinations for buying property—based on searches on its site—include Australia, Canada and the UK. Singapore ­introduced a 60% property tax for foreign purchasers in April, which has crimped midmarket demand.
目前，越来越多的迹象表明，更多的资金正在寻求撤离。房地产咨询公司巨鲸智库（Juwai IQI）8月份表示，预计未来两年将有70多万中国人离开中国。根据其网站上的搜索结果，最热门的购房目的地包括澳大利亚、加拿大和英国。新加坡于四月对外国购房者征收 60% 的房产税，这抑制了中端市场的需求。

If more cash flows out of China than into it, that means not all remittance requests can be satisfied by mirrored transactions, and agencies need to find ways to actually get money across the border. Clamping down on these routes has been a long-running game of cat and mouse. Chinese authorities have swatted simple options such as cash being moved in suitcases or car trunks or sailed to Hong Kong in junks. Increased scrutiny of overseas acquisitions has reduced the opportunities to get money out by paying an inflated price for companies outside China. And the crackdown on crypto has made it much harder to use digital currency as a workaround.
如果流出中国的现金多于流入中国的现金，这就意味着并非所有的汇款请求都能通过镜像交易得到满足，各机构需要想方设法将钱真正运过边境。对这些途径的限制是一场长期的猫捉老鼠游戏。中国当局已经打击了一些简单的方法，如将现金装在手提箱或汽车后备箱中，或用帆船运往香港。加强对海外收购的审查，减少了通过高价收购中国境外公司来套现的机会。而对加密货币的打击使得使用数字货币变通的难度大大增加。

Yet there are still ways. One popular technique is known as “smurfing.” It involves recruiting people on the mainland who haven’t used their legitimate remittance quotas of $50,000. By using many people, the agencies can then use their bank accounts and small individual allowances to funnel large amounts of money outside the country. Case investigations disclosed by the government show that sometimes this can reach epic scale. One man, surname Li, recruited 102 individuals to help send C$6.8 million ($5 million) in 2020, state media reported.
但还是有办法的。一种流行的手法被称为 "smurfing"。它是指在大陆招募尚未使用 5 万美元合法汇款配额的人。通过利用许多人，这些机构就可以利用他们的银行账户和小额个人津贴向境外输送大量资金。政府披露的案件调查显示，有时这种情况可以达到史诗般的规模。据国家媒体报道，一名李姓男子招募了 102 人，在 2020 年帮助汇款 680 万加元（500 万美元）。

And when the sums of money are even bigger, things get more sophisticated still. One common ruse is to doctor import contracts where bills have to be settled offshore. This can be done by inflating the value of the goods imported, with the seller then agreeing to siphon the difference into a separate offshore account. Or it can involve outright falsification. In one case in the eastern city of Wenzhou, a company created fraudulent commercial trades claiming it paid $9 million for imports. Another investment company, in Shenzhen, fabricated trades and wired almost $18 million overseas, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange disclosures.
当金额更大时，事情就会变得更加复杂。一种常见的伎俩是在进口合同上做手脚，规定账单必须在境外结算。这可以通过夸大进口货物的价值来实现，然后卖方同意将差额转入一个独立的海外账户。此外，还可能涉及直接造假。在东部城市温州的一起案件中，一家公司伪造了商业贸易，声称为进口货物支付了 900 万美元。根据国家外汇管理局披露的信息，深圳的另一家投资公司编造交易并向海外汇款近 1800 万美元。

Uncovering these sorts of illicit trades has become something of a forensic detective game for companies such as XTransfer Ltd., which helps small and medium-size businesses with trade and clears compliance with banks. In the company’s Hong Kong office, a member of XTransfer’s staff points to lines of data used to check whether a trade is authentic. In total the company uses more than 1,000 stats to automate verification. There are usually telltale signs when something’s off. High-value goods including diamonds, emeralds or big-ticket electronic items are a common ruse for fabricated trades, says Gong Weisong, an anti-fraud expert at XTransfer. “If the number of transactions to a specific seller is abnormally high, and also from various unrelated accounts, that’s another red flag,” Gong says. “Another thing we’ve noticed is that people who make up trades will often have meticulous documentation, which is also abnormal.”
对 XTransfer 有限公司等公司来说，揭露这类非法交易已成为一种法证侦探游戏，该公司帮助中小型企业进行贸易，并与银行进行合规清算。在该公司的香港办事处，XTransfer 的一名员工指着用于检查交易是否真实的数据线。该公司总共使用了 1,000 多条数据进行自动验证。有问题时，通常会有蛛丝马迹。XTransfer 公司的反欺诈专家龚伟松说，包括钻石、翡翠或大件电子产品在内的高价值商品是伪造交易的常见伎俩。"如果指向某个卖家的交易数量异常高，而且来自多个不相关的账户，这就是另一个危险信号，"龚伟松说。"我们注意到的另一件事是，编造交易的人往往会有缜密的文件记录，这也是不正常的。"

Even if moving money out of China becomes more difficult, experts don’t foresee any letup in overall attempts. Based on unexplained discrepancies in tourist data—which suggest Chinese tourists are leaving cash abroad when they travel—as much as $150 billion is expected to exit this year, according to an estimate from Gary Ng, a senior economist at French investment bank Natixis.
即使把钱从中国转移出去变得更加困难，专家们也不会预料到整体尝试会有任何松动。法国投资银行 Natixis 的高级经济学家 Gary Ng 估计，根据无法解释的游客数据差异--这表明中国游客在旅行时将现金留在了国外--预计今年将有多达 1,500 亿美元的资金流出中国。

Money From China Is Worth Less Than Before 中国的钱比以前不值钱了

Change in the price of the yuan in US dollars since Oct. 11, 2013
自 2013 年 10 月 11 日以来以美元计价的人民币价格变化情况

Source: Bloomberg 来源：彭博社来源：彭博社

“After the Covid era, Chinese have an increased demand for sending money overseas both for work or personal reasons,” says Liu Xinyu, a partner at law firm King & Wood Mallesons. “More people could resort to illegal channels, and we could see a rise in cases investigated by authorities.”
"金杜律师事务所合伙人刘新宇说："科维德时代之后，中国人因工作或个人原因向海外汇款的需求增加了。"更多的人可能会诉诸非法渠道，我们可能会看到被当局调查的案件增多"。

As well as being lucrative, the underground networks are sophisticated, clipping transactions in a way familiar to anyone who’s done foreign exchange. One way they make money is by asking for a more expensive exchange rate, according to people who’ve used them. For example, if one typically needs 716 yuan for $100 at a bank, they’d ask for 733 yuan instead. The rates change daily.
地下网络不仅利润丰厚，而且手段高超，以任何做过外汇交易的人都熟悉的方式进行削价交易。据使用过地下网络的人说，他们赚钱的一种方式是要求更贵的汇率。例如，如果一个人在银行兑换 100 美元通常需要 716 元人民币，他们就会要价 733 元。汇率每天都在变化。

For individuals, even as Covid lockdowns are lifted, the memories of the extreme curbs remain. “The pandemic definitely sped things up,” says Dominic Volek, group head of private clients at investment migration consultant Henley & Partners. People with wealth in China are “looking for a Plan B.” —With Jonathan Browning
对于个人来说，即使解除了 Covid 的限制，但对极端限制的记忆依然存在。"投资移民顾问公司 Henley & Partners 私人客户部主管 Dominic Volek 说："大流行病无疑加快了事态的发展。在中国拥有财富的人正在 "寻找B计划"。乔纳森-布朗宁