China hits money laundering in forex crackdown
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-02-20 17:07

China has cracked a string of money laundering cases involving illegal foreign exchange deals that amounted to $38 million, the Financial News said on Friday.

Police and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) uncovered the activity by tracking suspicious transactions at banks in the provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian and Heilongjiang, the newspaper said.

"A number of criminal suspects have been arrested," it said, adding that the cases involved a total of $38.29 million.

Authorities had frozen 7.62 million yuan (US$920,600) used for illegal forex deals and seized HK$5.12 million (US$658,700), 600,000 yuan and US$11,100, the newspaper said.

China has uncovered a growing number of cross-border currency scams since launching a nationwide crackdown on illegal foreign exchange deals in the second half of 2003.

China has allowed its residents to take out more hard currency when travelling abroad to help ease upward pressure on the yuan exchange rate and fight against money laundering.