A human resources manager in Shanghai, China, was caught embezzling 16 million yuan (US$2.2 million) from his company by creating 22 fictitious employees. According to the South China Morning Post, Yang, the HR manager, was responsible for managing payroll for temporary workers at a tech firm. He exploited a lack of oversight, discovering he had sole control over employee placement and salary payments.
Yang then created a fake employee record for someone named Sun and applied for salary payments on their behalf. He then transferred the funds to a bank card under his control, but not in his name.
When the labour services company investigated why Sun’s salary hadn’t been deposited, Yang blamed the delay on the tech company. However, it was later discovered that Yang had been fabricating records for 22 fictional employees since 2014, embezzling a total of 16 million yuan (Rs 19,22,42,560) in salaries and severance pay. The individual salaries of the “ghost employees” were not disclosed.
The scam was eventually exposed in 2022 when the tech company’s finance department noticed that Sun had a suspiciously perfect attendance record and always received timely salary payments, despite never being seen in the office. The authorities were notified, and an investigation was launched.
A thorough investigation into attendance records and bank transactions uncovered Yang’s elaborate eight-year scheme involving ghost employees. As a result, Yang received a prison sentence of 10 years and two months for embezzlement. He was also stripped of his political rights for one year and ordered to pay a fine. Additionally, Yang was required to return 1.1 million yuan (US$152,000) of the stolen funds, while his family was ordered to return a further 1.2 million yuan.
The case, reported in mainland media in March, sparked widespread attention and discussion on social media. One user wrote, “The labour service company’s payroll system had huge flaws which allowed someone like Yang to take advantage of them.”
Another commented, “Yang is so bold! He stole so much money while many real employees were suffering from unpaid wages. He should be ashamed.”