Bocom rocked by fraud

The country's fifth-largest lender, the Bank of Communications, is probing a US$25 million graft case involving customers' savings accounts in a branch in Shenyang, Liaoning province, according to a statement on the bank's website. The president of the branch was removed from his post more than two weeks ago and police have joined the investigation. That particular branch had announced a 33% increase in profits in 2005 from a year earlier. This is not the first fraud case to rock the Shanghai-based bank, which had earlier discovered a case involving almost $30 million at its Jinzhou branch, also in Liaoning.