Red Cross cashier charged with corruption, embezzlement

Li Yanping, a former cashier from the Puer city Red Cross Society in Southwest China’s Yunnan province, was charged with corruption and embezzlement of relief funds, according to the Simao district people’s procuratorate on Tuesday.

According to the indictment, between 2008 to 2016 she took advantage of her job to embezzle relief funds worth up to 2.47 million yuan ($363,200) and spent most of the money on beauty salons, online shopping, clothes and dinners.

The Simao district people’s procuratorate has filed the case to the Simao district people’s court, and the court hearing will be held at a later date.

Li, 43, started work at Puer Red Cross in 2000 and began working as a cashier in 2002. Since 2008, after receiving donated public funds, she didn’t save the money to public accounts. Instead, she allegedly embezzled them for private use.

Moreover, she had a financial seal and when she wanted to withdraw public funds, she could do so by herself without issue.

The case was exposed in 2016, when Puer Red Cross changed leadership. The new leader asked Li to move to a new position, handing financial records to her colleague.

In order to correct the imbalances, Li sold her house, her husband’s car and borrowed 400,000 from his relatives, returning 1.23 million yuan to the public account. She then fabricated a bank remittance note and account statement in an attempted cover–up, but the crime was discovered by the new cashier.

In April, Li was detained by the Simao district supervisory commission in Puer city.