August 6, 2007 - Recently, the SAFE Shenzhen Branch, together with the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau, successfully cracked down on large-scale underground money shops with an organized structure and a clear work division. Six criminal suspects including the money shop boss with the surname of Du were arrested on the spot and 55 accounts (about RMB 4.2 million) involved in the case were frozen.
According to a preliminary investigation, Du illegally operated the money shop in Shenzhen for seven or eight years. From 2006 to May 2007, the trading amount of the Shenzhen office alone reached over RMB 4.3 billion. In the three corporate accounts controlled by Du, the accumulated trading amount from January 2006 to June 25, 2007 reached RMB 1.78 billion, which was comprised of revenue of RMB 970 million and expenditures of RMB 810 million. In terms of industries, the trading funds related to real estate reached RMB 130 million, and those related to the capital market reached RMB 105 million. Some industries like trade and marketing involved largest amount of RMB 453 million. In terms of the regional distribution, clients were in all 31 provinces and cities of the country and the main VIP clients were concentrated in the coastal areas, such as Guangdong (excluding Shenzhen), Jiangsu , and Zhejiang . In terms of trading entities, enterprises, even many well-known domestic large-scale state-owned enterprises, occupied the main position. In terms of the use of the funds, the funds were mainly related to the makeup of the processing fees, the receipt of export proceeds, fuel payments, home purchase payments, security deposits for the conveyance of land, portfolio investments, advance payments, and domestic guarantees, etc. 
At present, the SAFE is closely cooperating with the public security agencies to sort out the fund transactions under the accounts controlled by Du's money shop and to collect further evidence of the illegal transactions of the money shop.