Xinjiang police detain 40 suspects in telecom fraud case

URUMQI -- Police in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region have detained 40 suspects in connection with a telecom fraud case.

The case involved more than 43 million yuan ($6.8 million), of which 1.5 million has been recovered so far, police in Usu said on Tuesday.

The case was launched after an Usu resident surnamed Hu reported to police in Nov 2017 that he had been cheated out of 460,000 yuan in a suspected telecom fraud.

Investigations showed that a fraud ring had set up foreign currency trading software to encourage members of the public to open accounts and make transactions through fake trading systems.

On Feb 1, Xinjiang police went to Xi'an in the northwest province of Shaanxi, where they believed the fraud ring was based, and caught 199 suspects within a week.

Police froze their accounts and issued a warrant for the ringleader surnamed Liu at the same time. Liu turned himself in on Feb 20, police said.

There are more than 450 victims in the case.

Further investigation is underway.