White collars, dark intentions

29 April 2026

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With white-collar criminals upping their game and a series of legislative updates signalling harsher crackdowns on these crimes, companies and their senior executives cannot afford to underestimate criminal risks. Kevin Cheng reports

Bribery, embezzlement, misappropriation of funds, money laundering … there never was a singular white-collar crime. Consequently, there never was a singular set of laws and regulations, compliance strategies and remedies that fits all such crimes. Now, with technological surges and subsequent emergence of new sectors, white-collar criminals have only grown more sophisticated, and more difficult to repel.

The past year saw intensifying anti-corruption efforts among state-owned enterprises (SOEs), with senior executives at Sinochem Group, China National Nuclear Corporation, Harbin Electric and China Resources investigated by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

A similar movement took over the private sector, with the likes of Huawei, DJI and Tencent Music disclosing anti-corruption and anti-fraud results that saw multiple senior management members handed over to judicial authorities on charges such as acceptance of bribes by a non-state functionary.

Pharmaceuticals and finance serve as the eye of the anti-corruption storm. In 2025, more than 30 banking executives at the level of vice president, provincial president or chairperson fell under disciplinary investigation.

To patch up legislative gaps and strengthen economic security, several landmark legal updates, including the 12th amendment to the Criminal Law and the amended Anti-unfair Competition Law, have broadened the applicable scope of bribery and other major crimes, drastically increasing the severity of punishments and clearing away obstacles for investigation and enforcement.

For companies and their senior executives, the escalation of criminal risks is a make-or-break stress test of their governance, compliance and internal investigation systems. In particular, with amendments opening the staff of non-public sector enterprises up to responsibility for more crimes, the room for error is quickly being cut down.

Cat and mouse but evolving

Among crimes committed by corporate personnel, embezzlement, misappropriation of funds, commercial bribery and infringement of trade secrets are among the most common. According to the White Paper on Criminal Procuratorial Work (2024), released by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) in March 2025, procuratorial organs nationwide prosecuted 10,570 individuals for crimes committed when discharging their corporate functions, such as embezzlement and misappropriation of funds (a 25% year-on-year increase).

Liang Yali, a senior partner at the Beijing office of King & Capital Law Firm, observes a continual rise in the number of white-collar crimes and a growing trend of derivative crimes. In the case of fraud, she notes that conventional loan fraud and contract fraud cases exist alongside novel types such as stock price manipulations via VIE structures, piecemeal appropriations, and targeted online scams.

Tools and methods of crime also evolve constantly. For example, Yao Qian, former head of the technology supervision department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), was accused of abusing his position to seek benefits for others and of accepting and concealing large amounts of bribes through cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency has been hailed as a holy grail for money launderers due to its inherent anonymity and borderless nature, greatly adding to the difficulty in detecting such crimes. Regulators are aware of the risks. The People’s Bank of China, in November 2025, convened a high-profile meeting on combating crypto speculation, attended by 12 government agencies including the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), the SPP, and the Cyberspace Administration of China.

Personnel and industries involved in white-collar crimes are also becoming more specialised. Carol Sun, a Shanghai-based partner at JunHe, describes new types of criminals as “highly professional and well educated, many with finance and tech backgrounds”, with the crimes “extending from traditional industries to fintech, scientific research and service sectors”.

Among the many types of white-collar crimes, bribery stands out due to its far-reaching impact. Li Tianhang, a Shanghai-based senior partner at Hui Ye Law Firm, says that while embezzlement is the most common, it mostly affects only the company’s reputation and assets. “By comparison, bribery has far greater ramifications, especially when it involves sensitive or public sectors,” he says.

Bid rigging, in particular, is a serious crime usually associated with bribery, and can be devastating to the entire business environment if it involves a leading company, says Li. This makes bid rigging a major judicial and enforcement target. According to the mid-2025 statistics report issued by the SPC, courts nationwide accepted 707 bid rigging cases during the first half of the year, a 30.44% year-on-year increase.

New scenarios of commercial corruption abound. In the darker corners of the internet industry, traffic monetisation and data rights are being used as bargaining chips. Ma Jingyun, a senior partner at the Shanghai office of Hiways Law Firm, observes fewer bribery cases using monetary kickbacks and more adopting more concealed ways to convey benefits.

“Bribers offer rare opportunities for children’s education, a ‘golden parachute’ after departure from a post, or novel assets such as cryptocurrency and NFT,” she says. “In worse cases, bribery assumes the guise of strategic partnerships or consultancy fees, a ‘sub-culture’ acquiesced or even encouraged within some companies.”

Skimming orders, where an employee transfers the company’s orders, businesses or opportunities to other companies or outside channels, is another common but hard-to-crack crime, traversing managerial loopholes and legal grey areas.

Tighter regulatory grip

The dilemma with crackdowns on skimming orders reflects a persistent gap in combatting white-collar crime. Fortunately, much effort has been made to patch up the shortcoming. Amendment (12) to the Criminal Law, enacted in March 2024, was a critical step.

The crimes for illegally conducting similar businesses – offering illegal profits to relatives or friends and converting shares, or selling them at a low price – once applied only to SOEs and their responsible persons, but can now be attached to various other companies and their personnel.

This effectively means that private-sector enterprises and their senior executives may be subject to an equal level of criminal liability as their SOE equivalents if caught transferring businesses to related parties, or disposing of assets at clearly unfair prices.

Additionally, Ma notes that the amendment expanded the focus of crackdowns against bribery. “Any repeated small-amount bribery by an employee could condemn the company to massive criminal risks,” she says.

In October 2025, the amended Anti-unfair Competition Law took effect, boosting the maximum fine for commercial bribery from RMB3 million (USD434,000) to up to RMB5 million. It also targets more than the company for the crime.

“The amendment stipulated punishments for the legal representatives and principal persons in charge, clarifying that the unit and individual shall both bear the liability for accepting bribes,” says Li.

Sun believes these legislative updates in recent years signal that regulators are redefining corporate governance as an economic security issue.

“Expanded criminal liability for directors, supervisors and senior management, equal crackdowns on giving and taking bribes, and increased criminal risks for non-state functionaries illustrate a switch in enforcement philosophy from protecting state property to safeguarding the social economic order,” she says.

“It is an institutional response to corporate governance lagging behind a decade of rapid economic growth of the private sector, and a rise in fund density.”

Also noteworthy is enhancement in the investigative side of crime fighting. The amended Supervision Law, effective since June 2025, set up a tiered system for enforcement. Besides retention in custody, the proven and true method, the amendment added compulsory appearance, release pending investigation, and protective care. The retention period could in theory be extended to up to 16 months, although harsh criteria would need to be met, such as the discovery of a new crime.

China’s supervisory commissions, established as state organs parallel to the government, the courts and the procuratorates, hold investigative authority over all public officials exercising public power. By design, this remit extends to the management of SOEs and, through jurisdiction over connected cases, can reach commercial bribery conduct within private-sector firms.