A former bank employee in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhau, near Hong Kong, was executed on Tuesday for taking bribes to issue letters of credit (L/Cs) that cost the bank at least US$10.3 million, according to a report in China's state media.

The report said Liang Shihan, a former Bank of China employee, was one of four former bank officials executed on Tuesday for financial crimes that cost Chinese banks a total of around US$15 million.

Unauthorised L/Cs

Shihan was convicted of accepting bribes to the total value of at least 5.8 million yuan (US$701,000) for issuing unauthorised L/Cs worth about US$42.5 million, according to the official Xinhua new agency.

The L/Cs were issued to a local businessperson who is reportedly still at large.

More executions

In a separate case, three former bank employees were executed in the central province of Henan for stealing around 28.4 million yuan (US$3.4 million) from bank accounts.

The three men, all of whom were former China Construction Bank employees, were identified as Miao Ping and Wang Xiang and Wang Liming. They were convicted for luring deposits from government agencies with promises of high interest rates, then falsifying cheques and money orders to steal from the accounts, Xinhua said.

Spate of arrests

The executions follow a spate of arrests related to financial crimes as China prepares to sell shares in its big banks.

China Construction Bank is expected to raise up to US$10 billion in an IPO next year. Bank of China is working towards an IPO worth up to US$4 billion.

Rare statement

Financial crime is on the rise according to officials sources quoted in the Xinhua report.

Analysts consider it most unusual for officials to admit to rising financial crime, particularly given the authorities much publicised campaigns to crackdown on white-collar criminality.

More to come?

China's Supreme Court has warned that Chinese courts will deal very harshly with commercial crimes.

Human rights groups have criticised China for handing down death penalties for convictions related to non-violent crimes. The authorities however defend the practice and say executions are a necessary tool for combating what they describe as an 'epidemic of fraud' and white-collar crimes.

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