New office to focus on combating money laundering

An office dedicated to fighting money laundering will be set up in the Operations Office at the People's Bank of China to help strongly safeguard national security and maintain social stability, according to a guideline.

The creation of the office announced by the guideline, made public by the operations office and the Beijing People's Procuratorate on Tuesday, is part of efforts to establish a coordinated investigation system to combat the crime.

The system is an innovation of the two departments to strengthen anti-money laundering investigations to improve the efficiency of fighting relevant crimes while maintaining financial management, said Ye Ping, deputy head of the procuratorate's fourth procuratorial division.

She noted that the office will help the two departments collaborate on fighting the crime and make their investigations and analysis of evidence more effective.

"It'll also help prosecutors apply big data and financial information in their investigations, assisting them as they try to figure out clues," she added.

Under the guideline, for example, when dealing with crimes such as drugs, smuggling, embezzlement, bribery and financial fraud, prosecutors are ordered to strengthen their review of funds involved in the crimes.

If they find evidence of money laundering, the procuratorate can prompt the PBOC's Operations Office to investigate, the guideline said.

The two departments have worked together before to combat crimes concerning money laundering.

In 2020, the pair signed a memorandum of understanding on fighting such crimes with four other authorities in the capital, including the Beijing High People's Court and the Beijing Public Security Bureau. Furthermore, the two departments, along with nine other agencies, jointly issued a three-year work plan in 2022 to fight the crimes.

Data released by the procuratorate showed on Tuesday that 74 people involved in 66 cases have been prosecuted for money laundering since 2020.