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Banking scheme busted
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CHINESE police have arrested 98 people over a huge scam involving some 409 million yuan (US$48 million) in phony inter-bank acceptance bills, State press reported on Monday.
Most of the fake bank acceptance bills were tied to the Heyuan branches of the Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank in southern Guangdong Province where 28 of the suspects were arrested, Xinhua News Agency said.
A total of 102 fake bank accceptance bills for 409 million yuan appeared at banks in 20 provinces and municipalities across China between 1998 and October last year, it said.
The alleged white-collar criminals took out over 253 million yuan in discounts on the bills, causing 78 million yuan in direct losses to the state, the report said.
Guan Jiaxin, a former employee at the Heyuan branch of the Bank of China, was named the mastermind of the scam and allegedly went around the country paying off bank employees to approve the inter-bank transactions.
Bank employees at the Heyuan bank would fax approval notices to the banks receiving the fake acceptance bills, while bank investigators were also bought off by Guan and two other groups involved in the scam, it said.
Few of those involved had college educations with most involving lower-level bank employees, Xinhua said.
The Heyuan bank was never certified to conduct inter-bank acceptance transactions, but by using the fake bills and receiving transaction approvals from differing bank departments the scam went undetected for nearly two years.
Investigations into the scheme began in August 2000 in Guangdong and eight other provinces.(SD-Agencies)
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