Police reveal economic crime tally, vow further crackdown

Shanghai police said on Tuesday that they have solved over 3,500 economic crimes so far this year and recovered over 14 billion yuan (US$2 billion) in losses.

Specifically, police said they have solved about 420 intellectual property rights infringement cases this year and recovered about 310 million yuan, while over 1.5 billion yuan in losses have been recovered for over 100 companies in some 300 cases where the suspects were company insiders.

In one case recently cracked by police in the city's free trade zone, three people who worked as regional directors and client managers had embezzled over 28 million yuan from their company since June 2015.

Over 60 business secret infringement and commercial bribery cases have been cracked so far this year too, and such cases have been on the rise recently, according to police.

Shanghai police said they will use data mining and analysis to more actively uncover early indications of economic crimes.

“By far, most economic crimes broke after reports from the victims. But when the damages have been done, it’s hard to recover all losses, especially in illegal public fundraising cases with large numbers of victims,” said Li Weijun, vice head of the Shanghai criminal police.

Meanwhile, Shanghai law enforcement departments have also been working closely with other government agencies in business fields, including local administrators of project bidding, to combat economic crime.

The police also pledged that all companies, state- or privately owned, domestic or multinational, shall enjoy the same priority in having their legal rights protected.

Wang Lei, an official of the criminal police, advised that companies which have suffered losses due to economic crimes should report their cases to the police immediately.

“Some companies are reluctant to file a report for fear of having their prestige smeared, but simply kicking responsible people out of the company doesn’t help the police in later investigations of their case,” he said.