Chinese account was cleaned out before bilked Scoular could get back its $17 million

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/money/chinese-account-was-cleaned-out-before-bilked-scoular-could-get/article_d5e2dd33-a357-534f-838e-e1e220a6e96f.html

POSTED: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2015 1:00 AM
By Russell Hubbard / World-Herald staff writer

No immediate relief appears on the horizon for Scoular Co., which lost $17 million in an overseas wire fraud, after an FBI inquiry in China came up empty.

Court documents filed by the FBI in the case indicate the Chinese bank account that received the fraudulent wire transfer has been cleaned out.

“The FBI Omaha Division was informed the bank account ... held at Shanghai Pudong Development Bank has been closed and funds transferred,” reads an update to the seizure warrant authorizing the China inquiry. “Therefore the warrant to seize property subject to forfeiture is being returned to the court without being executed.”

That amounts to a dead end so far in the search for the money for Omaha-based grain trader Scoular, a 120-year-old employee-owned company.

FULL story at link.