BEIJING, Apr. 24 -- The Agricultural Bank of China
yesterday announced the dismissal of a number of senior officials and employees
in the wake of a 51-million-yuan (US$6.60-million) theft from a branch in north
China.
It is one of the nation's biggest cash thefts on
record.
The bank demanded the resignation of Qu Jianyao,
president of the ABC's Hebei Province branch. Deng Zhenguo, a vice president of
the branch in charge of accounting, and Xu Yuesheng, in charge of security at
the branch, were fired. All the employees in the cash-management center at the
branch in Handan, a city in Hebei, where the massive theft occurred, have been
suspended during the investigation.
The sacked people also include the president of the
Handan branch, two of its vice presidents in charge of accounting and security
and the director and vice directors of the cash center.
Han Zhongqi, the ABC's vice president, said the
headquarters will mete out more punishment to those responsible when public
security authorities finalize the investigation.
Han said the main suspects were the bank's employees,
proving that loopholes lie in the management. The Handan branch signed a
contract with a security company, which took the charge of safeguarding the
vault and cash transport. The introduction of the service lowered the branch's
vigilance, Han said.
Police last week arrested two suspects - Ren
Xiaofeng, 34, and Ma Xiangjing, 37 - for the theft from the vault, which was
discovered on April 14.
The duo, who worked for the cash center, have
confessed to the crime.
They said they stole the money from the vault several
times from last month and spent most in buying lottery tickets in the hope of
making a fortune and then returning the money.
Afraid of being detected by the police, they decided
to commit the last theft on April 14 and fled. The Ministry of Public Security
last week put them on its most-wanted list, with a 200,000-yuan reward.
Three people will share the reward over Ren's arrest.
BEIJING, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese police have arrested
two men suspected of stealing almost 51 million yuan (6.5 million U.S.dollars)
in cash from the bank where they worked, the Ministry of Public Security said
Thursday. Full story
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