Word: pinging
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...street from a branch of the Bank of China, Beijing's central bank. She set up her restaurant in the building, and it quickly became a hub of the illegal Fujian Chinese community. It also became a major competitor of the bank. According to police and a number of Ping's clients, she used her connections in China to begin transferring money from those she smuggled back to their families in China. She proved more efficient than the bank across the street. Says a female immigrant who patronized Ping's service: "The Bank of China took three weeks, charged...
...Ping's not-so-secret bank was also used to enlarge the smuggling operation, according to the police. Kwong says it enabled the snakeheads to lend money in China to those who couldn't afford the down payment on the trip or who didn't have relatives already in the U.S. to sponsor them. "They charged 30% annual interest, enough to keep someone working to pay it off over a very long time," Kwong says. It also enabled Ping and others to transfer the payments for the smuggling fee immediately after they were made, opening up a whole new pool...
...late '80s, Ping's stature had grown so large that she was probably the best-known and most revered figure in Chinatown. Almost everyone in the Fujianese ghetto owed her something. She and her husband Cheung Yick-tak contributed $10,000 to buy the building that would house the Fujianese association, which police say soon became the center for human smuggling. He sat on the board. Both continued to work each day in the store or restaurant. There were no big cars or flashy clothes. When she traveled she took the subway, seemingly unafraid of the reach...
...Tiananmen Square crackdown created a boom in Ping's business. The amnesty granted by President George Bush to Chinese living in the U.S. established a huge legal population that could afford to pay to bring family and relatives over. As demand skyrocketed, larger criminal gangs learned that smuggling people was more profitable and legally less risky than smuggling drugs. Quickly the nature of the game changed. Gangs with bases in Hong Kong and China entered the field. Immigrants were recruited en masse, even if they couldn't afford a down payment. And when they couldn't keep up the payments...
...months after the Golden Venture ran aground, Sister Ping was invited to China along with other overseas notables of Fujianese descent for an anniversary celebration of the Communist Party. When she arrived in Beijing, however, instead of being honored, she was arrested. According to police and friends, she bribed her way out of custody but couldn't return to America because the investigation of the Golden Venture was getting close to her. She fled to her native village of Shengmei, which had benefited from the years she spent becoming an American success story. Shortly after arriving there she learned...