Latest news with #criminalcase
The Independent
8 hours ago
- Business
- The Independent
Wells Fargo banker blocked from leaving China amid criminal probe, Beijing confirms
A senior Wells Fargo banker is barred from leaving China while authorities investigate a criminal case involving her, Beijing says, sparking fears among foreign businesses over the use of exit bans. Chenyue Mao, Shanghai-born managing director at the US bank, landed in China recently on a business trip. She's not yet charged with any offence but is required to remain in China to cooperate with the investigation, according to the Chinese foreign ministry. Her exit ban comes at a tense moment in US-China relations as the two countries wrangle over trade policies. 'Ms Mao Chenyue is involved in a criminal case currently being handled by Chinese authorities who have lawfully imposed exit restrictions on her,' ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a regular press briefing on Monday. He didn't provide further details about the case or specify Ms Mao's alleged role in it. The case has not been publicly linked to any business dispute or specific allegations. The exit ban on Ms Mao came amid growing diplomatic strain between Washington and Beijing and prompted Wells Fargo to halt all employee travel to mainland China, reported the Wall Street Journal. The bank, headquartered in San Francisco, said in a brief statement that it was 'closely tracking this situation and working through the appropriate channels so our employee can return to the United States as soon as possible', CNN reported. It was unclear if Ms Mao still held Chinese citizenship, Reuters reported, quoting unnamed sources as saying she was a US national. Ms Mao has been at Wells Fargo since 2012. She leads the bank's international factoring business, a form of trade finance in which companies sell their receivables to third parties to obtain immediate cash. She advises multinational firms on working capital strategies for cross-border transactions. Three weeks before the exit ban was imposed, she was elected chair of FCI, formerly Factors Chain International, a global trade finance association with nearly 400 members worldwide, including 48 in China. 'I am excited for what lies ahead,' she told an industry conference in Rio de Janeiro, according to a post on her LinkedIn, 'together we will go far.' She travelled to China shortly after the conference but was prevented from returning to the US. She lives in Alpharetta, Georgia. An automated out-of-office reply from her email continues to state she is travelling internationally. Wells Fargo has a relatively limited footprint in China than other global banks but maintains offices in Beijing and Shanghai. According to two sources familiar with the matter, the company is quietly seeking clarification through diplomatic and legal channels, hoping to avoid further complications by maintaining a low profile. Exit bans are not new in China but are increasingly drawing concern from foreign firms and governments. Often imposed without formal charges, such bans are used in a range of scenarios, including regulatory probes, civil disputes, or criminal investigations. The scope and legal grounds are rarely made public and the affected individuals are often left in legal limbo for extended periods. Two individuals familiar with how exit bans are enforced in China said they were typically initiated by local authorities and could stem from anything ranging from financial disagreements to allegations of improper business conduct. Factoring, the financial service in which Mao specialises, can become legally complex in China due to strict capital controls and regulatory scrutiny over cross-border payments. Ms Mao's case emerged alongside similar reports of foreign nationals facing travel restrictions. According to the Washington Post, a Chinese-American employee of the US Department of Commerce has been prevented from leaving China after failing to declare his government employment on a visa application. The man, who works at the US Patent and Trademark Office, had gone to visit family several months ago. Chinese authorities have not confirmed his identity or provided details of the case. Beijing insists such exit restrictions are lawful and do not reflect a broader policy shift. 'This is an individual judicial case and China will continue to welcome people from all countries to visit and do business, while upholding their rights in accordance with the law,' the foreign ministry spokesperson said, according to CNN, referring to Ms Mao's case. 'Everyone in China, whether they are Chinese or foreigners, must abide by Chinese laws,' he was quoted as saying by Reuters. However, business groups and rights organisations warn that the increased use of exit bans poses a serious reputational and operational risk for international firms. 'The signal it should send is that no one is safe when travelling to China,' said Laura Harth, China in the World director at Safeguard Defenders, a human rights advocacy group. 'Too often companies and countries prefer to remain silent in the hopes of improving or accelerating the process.' The Wells Fargo case is the latest in a string of incidents involving foreign executives facing legal action or detention in China. In recent years, senior personnel from AstraZeneca, the risk consultancy Kroll and Japanese pharmaceutical firm Astellas have all been restricted from leaving the country amid various investigations. The US State Department currently advises American citizens to 'exercise increased caution' when travelling to China, citing the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including exit bans. The advisory warns that individuals may be detained or barred from departing China without transparent legal procedures, particularly in cases involving state security or business disputes. Chinese officials continue to maintain these are isolated incidents. Still, the steady rise in reported cases is expected to further unsettle executives and investors considering travel to the country, particularly those of Chinese descent with foreign passports, who may be more vulnerable to legal ambiguities under Chinese jurisdiction.
CBS News
21 hours ago
- CBS News
Etan Patz case: Pedro Hernandez gets at least 25 years in 1979 missing boy case
Editor's note: On July 21, 2025, a federal appeals court ruled that Pedro Hernandez should have a new trial or be released. The Manhattan DA's office is reviewing the decision. NEW YORK -- Almost four decades after first-grader Etan Patz set out for school and ended up at the heart of one of America's most influential missing-child cases, a former store clerk convicted of killing him was sentenced to at least 25 years in prison. In a few angry words, Etan's father condemned the convicted man. "Pedro Hernandez, after all these years, we finally know what dark secret you had locked in your heart," Stan Patz said. "I will never forgive you. The god you pray to will never forgive you. You are the monster in your nightmares." His wife, Julie Patz, wiped tears from her eyes as she witnessed the culmination of a long quest to hold someone accountable for their son's disappearance. The case affected police practices, parenting and the nation's consciousness of missing children. Hernandez, 56, didn't look at the Patzes, speak or react as he got the maximum allowable sentence: 25 years to life in prison, meaning he won't be eligible for parole until he has served the quarter-century. The lead defense lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, told the court Hernandez wanted to express deep sympathy to the Patzes but also to say "he's an innocent man and he had nothing to do with the disappearance of Etan Patz." Hernandez was a teenager working at a convenience shop in Etan's Manhattan neighborhood when the boy vanished in 1979, on the first day he was allowed to walk alone to his school bus stop. Hernandez, who's from Maple Shade, New Jersey, confessed to choking Etan. But his lawyers have said he's mentally ill and his confession was false, and they vowed to appeal his conviction. In a sign of the case's impact on the law enforcement officials and everyday people enmeshed in it, the courtroom audience Tuesday included Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., police officers who worked the case and a half-dozen ex-jurors. Etan was among the first missing children pictured on milk cartons. His case contributed to an era of fear among American families, making anxious parents more protective of kids who many once allowed to roam and play unsupervised in their neighborhoods. "Through this painful and utterly horrific real-life story, we came to realize how easily our children could disappear," said Vance, a Democrat who made a 2009 campaign promise to revisit the case if elected. The Patzes' advocacy helped to establish a national missing-children hotline and to make it easier for law enforcement agencies to share information about such cases. The May 25 anniversary of Etan's disappearance became National Missing Children's Day. Still, Stan Patz said, he and his wife had doubted they would ever find out what happened to their child because there were "so many false leads, so many blind alleys. So many years went by." "Now," he said after the sentencing, "I know what the face of evil looks like." From the start, Etan's case spurred a huge manhunt and an enduring, far-flung investigation. But no trace of Etan was ever found. A civil court declared him dead in 2001. Hernandez didn't become a suspect until police got a 2012 tip that he'd made remarks years earlier about having killed a child in New York. Hernandez then confessed to police, saying he'd lured Etan into the store's basement by promising a soda and choked him because "something just took over me." He said he put Etan, still alive, in a box and left it with curbside trash. "I'm being honest. I feel bad what I did," Hernandez said in a recorded statement. His lawyers say he confessed falsely because of a mental illness that makes him confuse reality with imagination. He also has a very low IQ. They also filed a motion to throw out the conviction, arguing jurors who knew members of the first jury were in the courtroom audience and may have swayed their decision, CBS New York reports. The judge rejected the motion. "Unfortunately in the end, we don't believe this will resolve the story of what happened to Etan," Hernandez's attorney, Fishbein, said. The attorneys have vowed to appeal. The defense pointed to another suspect, a convicted child molester whom some investigators and prosecutors - and even Etan's parents - pursued for years. That man made incriminating statements years ago about Etan but denied killing him and has since insisted he wasn't involved in the boy's disappearance. He was never charged. Hernandez's first trial in 2015 ended in a hung jury, but the 56-year-old was found guilty in the second trial of the case in February. "I'm really grateful that this jury finally came back with what I have known for a long time," Etan's father, Stan Patz, said at the time, CBS New York reports. "That this man, Pedro Hernandez, is guilty of doing something really terrible so many years ago." Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley said Tuesday he'd found prosecutors' case against Hernandez compelling. Hernandez, he said, "kept a terrible secret for 33 years."
CTV News
a day ago
- CTV News
Appeals court orders new trial for man convicted in 1979 Etan Patz case
A photograph of Etan Patz hangs on an angel figurine as part of a makeshift memorial in New York City on May 28, 2012. (Mark Lennihan / AP Photo) NEW YORK — The man convicted of killing six-year-old Etan Patz in 1979 was awarded a new trial Monday as a federal appeals court overturned the guilty verdict in one of the nation's most notorious missing child cases. Pedro Hernandez has been serving 25 years to life in prison since his 2017 conviction. He had been arrested in 2012 after a decadeslong, haunting search for answers in Etan's disappearance on the first day he was allowed to walk alone to his school bus stop. The appeals court overturned the conviction because of an issue involving how the trial judge handled a jury note during Hernandez 2017 trial — his second. His first trial ended in a jury deadlock in 2015. The ruling says that the judges concluded that the state trial court's instruction was not only 'clearly wrong' but 'manifestly prejudicial' The court ordered his release unless the state gives him a new trial within a reasonable period to be set by the lower court judge. Emily Tuttle, a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney, said 'We are reviewing the decision.' Harvey Fishbein, an attorney for Hernandez, declined to comment when reached Monday by phone. Hernandez was a teenager working at a convenience shop in Etan's Manhattan neighbourhood when the boy vanished. Hernandez, who's from Maple Shade, New Jersey, later confessed to choking Etan. But his lawyers said he was mentally ill and his confession was false. Etan was among the first missing children pictured on milk cartons. His case contributed to an era of fear among American families, making anxious parents more protective of kids who many once allowed to roam and play unsupervised in their neighborhoods. 'Through this painful and utterly horrific real-life story, we came to realize how easily our children could disappear,' said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., a Democrat who made a 2009 campaign promise to revisit the case if elected. The Patzes' advocacy helped to establish a national missing-children hotline and to make it easier for law enforcement agencies to share information about such cases. The May 25 anniversary of Etan's disappearance became National Missing Children's Day.
BBC News
a day ago
- Business
- BBC News
China blocks Wells Fargo banker from leaving due to 'criminal case'
A Wells Fargo banker has been blocked from leaving China due to a criminal matter, the country's foreign ministry has Mao "is involved in a criminal case currently being handled by Chinese law-enforcement authorities and is subject to exit restrictions in accordance with the law", ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a press briefing in Beijing on is not known when the ban was imposed, or the exact nature of the the wake of the ban, the bank - which has had one branch in Shanghai since 2005 and another in Beijing since 2015 - decided to suspend all travel to China, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters news agency. Wells Fargo said on Friday it was "working through the appropriate channels" to secure Ms Mao's return, but did not release any details as to why the US citizen had been prevented from leaving the country. Ms Mao - a managing director at the bank - has been with Wells Fargo for more than 13 years, according to her LinkedIn US embassy in Shanghai told BBC News that the safety and security of US citizens overseas was its "highest priority"."We track these cases closely, and have raised our concern with Chinese authorities about the impact these arbitrary exit bans have on our bilateral relations and urged them to immediately allow impacted US citizens to return home," the embassy said. "The Chinese government has, for many years, imposed exit bans on US citizens and other foreign nationals in China, often without a clear and transparent judicial process for resolution."However, Mr Guo told reporters that "everyone in China, whether they are Chinese or foreigners, must abide by Chinese laws", adding that Ms Mao "has the obligation to cooperate with the investigation".The exit ban comes at a time of diplomatic tension between China and the US, particularly within the business space, as US President Donald Trump's tariffs continue to put strain on the two countries' business recently pledged to allow more participation in a range of its business sectors, in a stated bid to attract more foreign investment amid worsening geopolitical tensions."China will, as always, welcome people from all countries to visit China for tourism and business," Mr Guo said at Monday's press briefing.
Al Arabiya
a day ago
- Business
- Al Arabiya
China says Wells Fargo banker under exit ban is involved in a criminal case
China's foreign ministry said on Monday that Chenyue Mao, the Wells Fargo banker who has been blocked from leaving the country, was involved in a criminal case and obliged to cooperate with the investigation. Chinese law enforcement authorities have restricted Mao's exit in accordance with the law, Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for the ministry, told a regular press briefing. The US bank had suspended all travel to China after Mao's exit ban, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters last week. The case was being investigated and Mao was obliged to cooperate with the investigation, Guo said, without elaborating on the case or how the banker was involved. 'Everyone in China, whether they are Chinese or foreigners, must abide by Chinese laws,' Guo said, adding that China will protect their legitimate rights and interests in investigations. Mao, who was born in Shanghai and based in Atlanta, currently serves as a managing director at Wells Fargo, specializing in the international factoring business.
