Court Hands Bank of Tianjin Ex-Staffer 15 Years for USD273.4 Million Fraud
Chen Juan | Zhang Yushuo
DATE:  Mar 09 2020
/ SOURCE:  yicai
Court Hands Bank of Tianjin Ex-Staffer 15 Years for USD273.4 Million Fraud Court Hands Bank of Tianjin Ex-Staffer 15 Years for USD273.4 Million Fraud

(Yicai Global) March 9 -- A Chinese court has sentenced a former employee of the Bank of Tianjin to 15 years in prison for embezzlement and bribery relating to the counterfeiting of CNY1.9 billion (USD273.4 million) worth of bank acceptance bills.

Zhang and seven accomplices face prison terms of three years to life, according to a statement on the China Judgements Online website on March 5, citing the court verdict. The fraudsters have caused the bank's Shanghai branch an unrecoverable loss of CNY780 million (USD112.3 million).

Zhang, who was an employee at the branch between September 2015 and March 2016, was responsible for its bills of acceptance business, which are a financing instrument issued by a lender on behalf of a customer as a form of payment guarantee.

Together with a commercial bill agent surnamed Lv, the controller of Shanghai Hecheng Financial Information Service surnamed Zhu and several others, the accomplices set up virtual bank accounts and fabricated acceptance bills to gradually embezzle the money from the branch.

Once the bank raised the alarm in April 2016, Zhang turned himself in to the police. He claimed that most of the illicit gains had either been squandered in personal spending sprees or used to pay various kinds of service charges, kickback fees and debts.

He was found guilty of exploiting his position in a state-run organization to receive over CNY11 million (USD1.6 million) in bribes, according to the China Judgements Online statement, citing the second-instance verdict made by the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court in 2017. Zhang was sentenced to 15 years in prison and his personal property of CNY1 million confiscated.

Lv was found guilty of fraud and of offering more than CNY11 million in bribes to employees of a government organization, according to the verdict. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison and fined CNY3 million. Zhu was given life imprisonment for fraud and his personal wealth of CNY3 million seized.

Editor: Kim Taylor

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Keywords:   Bank of Tianjin,bank acceptance bills