The foreign exchange regulator yesterday published its first list of companies that have violated currency regulations in recent years and been involved in financial fraud.

More than 400 firms had flouted rules laid out by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), in some cases by creating shell companies to obtain foreign exchange and loans and evade taxes, SAFE said on its Web site. In one such case, an individual had registered more than 10 shell companies to unlawfully obtain more than 8,000 trade verification dockets from the regulator involving goods worth US$52 million.

SAFE said it published the list in a bid to improve transparency and clamp down on financial fraud.

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