Police arrests illegal banking suspect

In a campaign to crack down on the growing number of underground banks and money laundering operations, the police arrested a South Korean in connection with the first-ever, foreign-run underground foreign exchange den, state media reported. The police allege that Kim Cheon-Jae, 45, ran an underground bank in Qingdao in the Shandong Province that illegally transferred about RMB240m (USD$29m) in and out of China since 2001. Since the campaign began, officials have uncovered 155 underground banks involving RMB12.5bn (USD$1.5 bn).