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China's Red Cross admits donation abuse by staff

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-23 00:00

BEIJING -- The Chinese Red Cross Foundation (CRCF) confirmed Friday that some donations to leukemia children were embezzled and a staff member was to blame.

Ma Shujun, a program volunteer, allegedly copied ID cards and residency documents from parents of leukemia children in the name of helping them apply for financial assistance, said a CRCF statement.

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The foundation said Ma, a father of a child with leukemia who received funding from the same program, opened bank accounts using those parent's documents. He then stole money from the accounts after the CRCF transferred them funding, the statement said.

"We are still interviewing the families we assisted to find out how many were cheated by him," a CRCF official told Xinhua Friday. "The total amount of money embezzled will not be released until next week."

The Guangdong-based Southern Metropolitan Daily reported Friday that, according to its own investigation, 27 families were Ma's victims and about 555,000 yuan (US$81,000) was stolen.

The CRCF official told Xinhua that the total amount might be more than the figure reported by the newspaper.

Questions about Ma were raised when a parent, named Cheng Dongxue, went to the foundation's office in Beijing to check on donations he received to help pay for his daughter's leukemia treatment.

The CRCF reported the case to the police early this month, but Ma was missing when police arrived at his hometown in Hebei Province on May 15.

In a printed email letter published by the Southern Metropolitan Daily, Ma admitted to CRCF secretary-general Wang Rupeng that he did help parents apply for funding and open bank accounts. He said he helped seven families successfully qualify for 140,000 yuan.

He also admitted that he only deposited half of the 20,000 yuan in assistance they each received from the CRCF into the bank accounts he opened. He took the other half for "other parents who needed help."

Ma wrote that he did this because many parents placed hope in his help as a volunteer for the program and the success rate to receive funding was normally low.

Wang Rupeng said the success rate for CRCF funding is only around 10 percent due to the limited amount of money the foundation has raised and the high number of applicants.

In the letter, Ma mentioned Wang Li, a staffer of the Red Cross Society of China's branch in Hebei Province, for asking him to help file applications and open bank accounts. So far, Wang has not been detained.

In 2005 and 2006, Ma, once a soldier, garnered media attention for standing on the streets of Tianjin begging for money to pay for his son's treatments. He put up a signboard saying he was honored for fighting the big Yangtze-River flood in 1998.

Ma moved many people at the time and received donations from the CRCF totaling up to 410,000 yuan, according to Southern Metropolitan Daily.

He also received money from other benevolent organizations and individuals.

In Friday's statement, the CRCF urged families of leukemia children to apply for assistance by themselves and not to give important identity documents to any person who claims they can help.

"They can log on our website to check whether their application has been approved or not," the statement said. "If there is any problem, please contact us or report to the police."