SHANGHAI — In the first 10 months of 2006, Chinese regulators uncovered 776 banking crimes, including 205 cases involving more than 1 million yuan ($125,000 U.S.). Fraud and other irregularities at Chinese banks added up to $95.9 billion in 2005, an increase of 31% from 2004, according to the China Banking Regulatory Commission.
In one widely publicized case last summer, a government audit uncovered financial crimes and bookkeeping irregularities totaling 52 billion yuan ($6.45 billion) at the state-owned Agricultural Bank of China, the country’s second-largest bank in terms of assets.
