China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) and Ministry of Public Security (MPS) have been exerting efforts to crack down on the transfer of illegal money, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.

Statistics from SAFE show that from January to June this year, foreign exchange administrative departments discovered more than 330 suspected money laundering cases and passed them to MPS. The cases involved more than US$1 billion.

According to China's newly issued anti-laundering law, the anti-laundering department of the People's Bank of China, the bureau on economic crime of MPS and the inspection and management department of SAFE are the three major institutions responsible for money laundering supervision.

In the latter half of 2003, police in east China's Zhejiang Province and SAFE Zhejiang branch found from their anti-laundering information system that an account had undertaken 500 foreign exchange transactions within half a year, and the highest transaction volume reached US$17 million.

Following the trails, police found that the account's real owner was a Macao casino boss, who got his money from the debts of mainland gamblers.

"This is the first money laundering case that China has found by tracing large sums of suspected foreign exchange accounts," said Chu Yumei, an official with SAFE.

(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2004)