Chinese gang builds fake interrogation room to bribe officials

By Asian Correspondent Staff Oct 20, 2015 

Four Chinese con artists have been accused of building an official-looking interrogation room where they posed as anti-corruption investigators and extracted a promise of payment from a local official in return for dropping their phony investigation.

The official Legal Daily newspaper reported Tuesday that the gang in the northeastern city of Suihua made one attempt at the scheme. After snatching an agricultural official and his wife from their home, they took them to their interrogation room and obtained a promise for a 400,000 yuan ($63,000) payment.

After the couple alerted police, nobody appeared to collect the money, and one of the four turned himself in. Three are now in custody and police are searching for the fourth. An official with the city Agriculture Department confirmed the report.

Chinese outlet Tencent reported that the centre took three months to build at a cost of 200,000 yuan (US$31,500) – not a good return on investment.

In July another Chinese conman was nabbed for setting up a fake police station in his home. ‘Inspector Lei’ also setting up his scam, with (real) investigating officers finding stun guns, surveillance equipment, GPS equipment, and even an interrogation room complete with bust of Mao Zedong when they raided the premises.

The phony officer had scammed unsuspecting members of the public by selling falsified Public Security Bureau documents and warrants from the premises.