Wanted Men

Some of the most wanted white-collars fugitives in the world. White-collar crime is serious business, and some fraudsters are able to elude facing the consequences of their actions.

1)Lai Chang Xing
This entrepreneur fled China in 1999 and is wanted for bribing officials to evade duties and tariffs by smuggling everything from cigarettes to luxury cars to crude oil in schemes that allegedly amounted to $6 billion. He has taken up residency in Vancouver, Canada in 2002, but Lai has won deportation battles for close to a decade.


2) Gao Shan
The Chinese government has issued a warrant for this banker for allegedly embezzling $150 million from customers. The former head of a Bank of China branch in northeast China, fled in 2005 and emerged in Canada, where he has been living with his family. He successfully outmaneuvered China's attempts to get him sent home.


3) Thaksin Shinawatra
The former Thai Prime Minister faces “corruption” and an "abuse of authority" charge over a reported $90 million 2004 loan from Export-Import Bank of Thailand to Burma so that the neighboring country could buy satellite services from the Shinawatras' company. After attending the Olympics' opening ceremony in Beijing, he and wife Potjaman headed to London to seek asylum. The Thai government is considering an extradition request.


4) Jacob "Kobi" Alexander
The former chief of Comverse Technology, a software company in Woodbury, N.Y., has been living in the African country of Namibia. U.S. government has charged the Israeli-born Alexander with securities fraud for backdating the Nasdaq-listed Comverse's option grants and reaping "substantial personal gain from his fraudulent conduct.


5) Gaith Rashad Pharaon
The wealthy Saudi was indicted for fraud charges by the U.S. government in 1991 for his alleged role in the mammoth collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. A large shareholder of BCCI, he was accused of being a front man for unlawful purchases of American banks. The Federal Reserve fined him $37 million for his role in secretly taking over banks, and the Harvard University graduate lost his legal challenge of that fine.