Indonesia arrests a suspect wanted by China for running a $14 billion investment scam

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s immigration officers on the tourist island of Bali have arrested a Chinese suspect sought by Beijing for helping run over $14 billion investment scam to clients in China, officials said Thursday.

The 39-year-old man, identified only by his initial, LQ, was arrested on Oct. 1, when an immigration auto-gate in Bali’s Ngurah Rai international airport denied him departure for Singapore.

The biometric data in the computer registry at the airport identified him as a suspect wanted by Beijing, which led to his arrest, according to Silmy Karim, the immigration chief at Indonesia’s law and human rights ministry. He had been listed on an Interpol warrant since late September.

The suspect first arrived in Bali from Singapore with a Turkish passport as Joe Lin on Sept. 26, just a day before Interpol released a so-called Red Notice for him, a request to law enforcement agencies worldwide to detain or arrest a suspect wanted by a specific country.

Indonesian authorities brought the suspect, wearing a detainee’s orange shirt and a facemask, before reporters to a news conference Thursday in the capital of Jakarta. The suspect did not make any statements and was not asked any questions.

“He was wrong to use Indonesia as a transit country, let alone as a destination country to hide,” Karim said, lauding technological advances and cooperation between immigration and the national police.

Krishna Murti, the chief of the international division of the National Police, said the decision to deport or to extradite the suspect to China will take some time. Indonesia needs to confirm whether he has truly become a Turkish citizen in the meantime or if he used a fake passport to enter Indonesia.

“We have to