(Yicai Global) May 20 -- China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange announced 17 foreign exchange violations today. 

One case involves an international trade firm in Guangzhou which has been fined CNY37.3 million (USD5.4 million) for illegally remitting USD92.9 million overseas. The amount of money involved, and the penalty are both the largest of their kind ever.

This is the first publication of violations by the country's forex watchdog this year. Guangzhou-based Yangfan Trading remitted USD93 million overseas via counterfeited vouchers and made-up transactions between May 2016 to June 2017, per SAFE's notification.

Bank of Nanjing, Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Industrial Bank, and China Merchants Bank connived with or helped firms to avoid or evade forex rules, the regulator announced, also fining them CNY4.5 million in total.

The regulator also unmasked six illegal individual forex trades. A suspect in one case allegedly paid CNY312 million illegally buying forex to purchase properties overseas between February 2011 and October 2015 and was fined CNY25 million. The amount of money involved is the biggest in the six cases.

Chinese forex authorities will focus on cracking down on shady forex transactions and arbitrage activities and continue to support legal forex trade and regular cross-border transactions and payments, SAFE told Yicai Global.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Ben Armour