China’s central bank has denied a rumour that a detained senior official forged $314bn (nearly R5-trillion) worth of banknotes.
Chen Yaoming was one of the people in charge of minting China’s cash until he was recently detained for suspected “serious crimes.”
His detention was one of the top trending topics on Weibo Wednesday, with some people speculating it was because he had been printing banknotes with the same serial numbers as other notes.
The rumour that he printed 2-trillion yuan worth of such notes is false, the People’s Bank of China said Wednesday, and has been reported to the police. The printing of renminbi notes follows a strict process and has always been carried out in accordance with laws and regulations, the bank said.
However, there was no explanation why Chen was detained, either in the central bank’s statement or in the notice from the anti-corruption watchdog earlier this month, which said that he’d surrendered himself and was under investigation.
Forging 2-trillion yuan in banknotes would be a truly mammoth undertaking. The largest note in China is 100 yuan, so 2-trillion yuan would be 20-billion notes, and would be worth about 2% of China’s 2020’s gross domestic product.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
China denies rumour that detained mint banker forged $314bn in notes
Image: Bloomberg
China’s central bank has denied a rumour that a detained senior official forged $314bn (nearly R5-trillion) worth of banknotes.
Chen Yaoming was one of the people in charge of minting China’s cash until he was recently detained for suspected “serious crimes.”
His detention was one of the top trending topics on Weibo Wednesday, with some people speculating it was because he had been printing banknotes with the same serial numbers as other notes.
The rumour that he printed 2-trillion yuan worth of such notes is false, the People’s Bank of China said Wednesday, and has been reported to the police. The printing of renminbi notes follows a strict process and has always been carried out in accordance with laws and regulations, the bank said.
However, there was no explanation why Chen was detained, either in the central bank’s statement or in the notice from the anti-corruption watchdog earlier this month, which said that he’d surrendered himself and was under investigation.
Forging 2-trillion yuan in banknotes would be a truly mammoth undertaking. The largest note in China is 100 yuan, so 2-trillion yuan would be 20-billion notes, and would be worth about 2% of China’s 2020’s gross domestic product.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
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