Top court takes aim at financial criminals

With the fight against financial crimes about to be intensified, a series of judicial interpretations for handling relevant cases and regulating the market will be made or revised in a timely manner, China's top court said.

Chinese courts will hand down heavier punishments, including increased fines for illegal funding, money laundering, the manipulation of securities or futures markets, and insider trading, Ma Yan, chief judge of the No 3 Criminal Division of the Supreme People's Court, told media recently.

"A few legal interpretations, such as those regarding money laundering, loan fraud and insider trading, will also be drafted or amended as quickly as we can, in an effort to improve the professionalism of criminal case handling," he said.

Additionally, judges have been required to work with prosecutors and financial supervision departments to enhance cooperation to jointly combat financial offenses and prevent financial risks, he added.

Ma highlighted the importance of solving financial crimes, "as it relates to our nation's financial security, economic growth and social stability".

Recalling what Chinese courts have done in the fight against such crimes in recent years, Zhu Erjun, deputy chief judge of the division, said that illegal fund-raising cases accounted for a large proportion.

Statistics provided by the top court showed that from 2017 to last year, courts nationwide wrapped up 60,200 illegal fund-raising cases, with more than 100,000 people punished.

"In the past five years, the annual number of such cases was over 5,000, which made up about 40 percent of all financial criminal cases," Zhu said, adding that taking advantage of the internet to commit such crime is rising.

Considering many offenders targeted the elderly, Chinese courts have also helped old people solve financial problems and recover their financial losses.

"We've paid greater effort in tackling criminal cases in which defendants cheated senior citizens to buy fake services or products for the aged," Ma said. "We've also collaborated with other authorities to prevent fraudsters from transferring money and tried our best in the recovery of losses.

"After finding loopholes and risks in industries related to the elderly, we sent judicial suggestions to relevant government agencies or institutions to avoid fraud targeting the elderly from the root," he said.

So far, Chinese courts have delivered more than 1,200 such suggestions, in a bid to protect the legitimate rights and interests of seniors through a long-term mechanism, he added.

Courts nationwide in the past five years also dealt with 1,154 cases of money laundering and 229 cases involving the manipulation of securities or futures markets and insider trading.