The charges and countercharges of fraud and misappropriation of millions of dollars, ensuing legal battles, and John-le-Carré-like plots involving private detectives, Mexican prisons, night-club dancers, US Congressmen, suspicious deaths, and the US Supreme Court, were covered in over 2,000 articles published in the US, China, Australia, India, and many other countries around the world.

[1][2] Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975, was born in 1887 in Xikou, a town approximately 30 kilometers (19 mi) southwest of downtown Ningbo.

Soviet officers initially focused their teaching on basic infantry topics and provided special classes for artillery, engineering, communication, logistical and machine gun units.

Further enhancing his standing with Chiang Kai-shek, Mao commanded the air assaults on a rebellious, heavily-fortified city in the Fujian Province, in 1934.

[8] Subsequently, as member of the National Government Aviation Committee, Mao was sent to the United States to explore the purchase of new airplanes for the Chinese air force.

[6] On 25 May 1940, Mao was promoted to major general, and in 1941 he helped Captain Chennault to established the 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force.

[1][6] Under the leadership of Chennault the AVG successfully engaged the Japanese air force on many occasions and became famous as the so-called "Flying Tigers."

The Flying Tigers were also instrumental in establishing an alternate supply route over "The Hump," a connection between Burma and southern Chinese cities, such as Kunming and Chengdu.

[11][14] In 1942 Mao was assigned to the U.S. to establish the Chinese Air Force Office in Washington, DC and was placed in charge of aviation procurement activities.

[20] In 1949 his wife, Wong Ay Chuan (also known as Pauline), and five of his six sons (Van, Maurice, Donald, Harry and William) joined General Mao in Washington, DC, where they lived in a diplomat residence on 32nd Street, N.W.

[21] The Chiang Kai-shek government of the Republic of China alleged that Mao failed to account for $19,440,000[4] (equivalent to about $180,000,000 in 2015)[22] and removed him from all official positions at the UN.

[29][30]) Koo furthermore found proof that Mao had diverted large sums of government funds into his own accounts in the US and around the world, which include $2,000,000 in United States Treasury bearer bonds.

Mao went on to buy 250,000-Peso villa, hired 4 servants, and arranged for his secretary, Agnes Kelly, a "tall, blonde, ex-showgirl," to join him.

[18][38][39][40][41] A protracted legal and political battle ensued during which Taiwan sought an extradition of General Mow from Mexico, and the recovery of $6,400,000 million in US courts.

It was reported that the Chiang Kai-shek government hired John Broady,[26] an infamous private investigator,[43][44] to find and recover the missing funds, and to extract General Mow from Mexico.

[18] In the end, General Mow was imprisoned in the Black Palace of Lecumberri, in a prison cell next to Leon Trotsky assassin Ramón Mercader, from 1951 until 1955.

[45] Allegedly he paid $350 per month to have "luxury" prison housing, including a valet, cook, and weekly conjugal visits by Agnes Kelly.

On the other hand, liberal democrats used the case to label Mow as "principled hero" and attacked the Chiang Kai-shek government.

[27][78][79] The settlement negotiated by ambassador George Yeh called for the return of about $1.5 million in Treasury notes still held in Swiss bank accounts.

For example, General Mow defended his position by claiming that Chiang Kai-shek was not the rightful president of Taiwan and hence could not have ordered him to come back or file a lawsuit on behalf of the Chinese people in US courts.

The Supreme Court ruled that it is within the purview of the US President, represented by the State Department, to approve ambassadors and recognizes foreign governments.

The Supreme Court recently affirmed this general position, when it struck down a law enacted by Congress, but opposed by President Obama, that would let American citizens born in Jerusalem have Israel listed in passports as their country of birth.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion, citing among other sources to the ruling in the Mow case, that recognizing foreign governments is "the President's exclusive power.

The courts held that such countersuites are only narrowly allowed if they directly impact the matter put forward by the suing foreign government.

"[81] By the end of the war with Japan, in 1945, the family was living in Chengdu from where they undertook a long boat journey down the Yangtze River to Shanghai in 1946.

By 1948, Pauline and her 6 sons were evacuated from mainland China to Taiwan, together with some 2 million people, consisting mainly of members of the ruling Kuomintang, intellectual and business elites, and soldiers.

After General Mow had fled to Mexico in early 1951, Pauline and her sons had to vacate their diplomatic housing in Washington, DC, and settled in Great Neck, New York.

Without the support of General Mow, unable to return to Taiwan, not willing to move back to mainland China under communist control, and not being American citizens, the family struggled.

During the 1980s sales approached $1 billion, making Bugle Boy one of the largest privately owned apparel companies in the United States.