Society

Economic crimes spreading beyond China's borders

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-11-19 21:57

BEIJING - Economic crimes in China, which have risen by 9.2 percent a year since 2000, were crossing borders and becoming "internationalized", the Ministry of Public Security said Friday.

Deputy head of the ministry's Economic Crime Investigation Department (ECID) Liu Wenxi said public security authorities had increased cooperation with foreign counterparts to seize criminals and recover their takings from abroad.

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"This is a growing challenge in our struggle to safeguard national economic security," he said.

A total of 250 fugitive economic criminals had been arrested in more than 20 foreign countries and regions since 2006.

"Economic crimes, with annual increase of 9.2 percent since 2000, are the mainstream of crime in China," Liu said.

Public security organs across the country had uncovered more than 4,800 cases of business bribery, involving more than 4,300 people since 2006, and retrieved funds totaling 335 million yuan ($50 million).

In recent years, more ordinary people were also involved in economic crimes, such as illegal fund-raising and pyramid selling schemes, Liu said.

Last year, police investigated 2,641 fund-raising crimes, up by 56 percent year-on-year, and dealt with 2,618 pyramid schemes, a rise of 106.9 percent, according to the ministry.

Liu warned that commerce websites were being used by criminals to spread criminal methods, sell illegal merchandise and cheat people of their money.

Last year, Chinese police broke up a pyramid scheme that had taken about 1 billion yuan ($146.56 million) since 2007. Run by a company named Hong Kong Link World International Sci-tech Ltd, it had enrolled tens of thousands of people across the country through the Internet.