A RECENT television broadcast has forced Shenzhen police to revisit a fraud case where a Hebei Province businessman had 7.8 million yuan (US$1.26 million) stolen from his bank account, but the alleged fraudster was allowed to walk free.

    The police had allegedly encouraged the victim to drop the case to get his money back, and after the victim dropped the case the police said they could no longer help the victim.

    In 2003, the businessman in the cashmere business, surnamed Yang, discovered that 7.8 million yuan had been withdrawn from his bank account and he later learned from the bank that a Hong Kong business partner of Yang’s, surnamed Tse, had withdrawn the money. He reported it to the police.

    In 2004 the police confirmed Yang was the victim of contract fraud, but Tse’s arrest didn’t come until almost 10 years later in 2013.

    After Tse’s arrest, the police allegedly gave Yang two options: Yang could either drop the case against Tse and Tse would repay Yang 3 million yuan, or Yang could pursue the case against Tse legally and receive no money back.

    Yang chose to drop the case in return for his money. But after dropping the case, the police told Yang that Tse refused to give the money back to Yang as promised and the police could do nothing because the case had been dropped, according to the Chinese-language program “Topics in Focus” on China Central Television (CCTV).

    Yang was left without his money and Tse was set free, according to the report. Other government departments told Yang the same thing: since he dropped the case, they can’t help him.

    After the CCTV news report exposed the case, the police responded quickly.

    Hours after the report, the city’s public security bureau said on its Weibo that it has set up a special task force to investigate the case and will release the results to the public as quickly as possible. (Han Ximin)