69 suspects in south China's loan fraud scandal given punishment

Investigation into a loan fraud scandal, in which officials colluded with private businessman Feng Mingchang in south China's Guangdong Province, has found that 69 people will face criminal punishment.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the CPC's internal discipline watchdog, and the Ministry of Supervision (MOS) have rooted out 233 people including 80 civil servants involved in the fraud. They are mainly from governments, financial institutions and companies.

Feng Mingchang, together with other 68 suspects including Ye Jiasheng, former deputy head of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Guangdong branch, Lin Junjiang, former head of the ICBC Foshan (a city in Guangdong) branch, Lin Yuxing, former head of the ICBC Nanhai (a city in Guangzhou) branch and Sun Bokuan, former director of the Nanhai financial bureau, will be charged on criminal prosecution, according to the two departments.

Feng, a private businessman, had set up a bunch of companies inside and outside China since 1990. He had taken huge bank loans and local governments' financial loans totaling dozens of billion yuan by falsifying company performance records and colluding with bank and government officials.

Feng was found to have loaned about 2.6 billion yuan (314 million US dollars) from financial institutions, causing more than two billion yuan's (24 million US dollars) of financial losses.

The case, disclosed by the National Audit Office last August, has evoked great concern from the central government, who had soon asked concerning departments to probe into it.