A human resources manager in China created 22 fake employees to embezzle 16 million yuan (US$2.2 million) in salary and severance payments from the company.

The man, surnamed Yang, who worked at a labour services company in Shanghai, was responsible for managing the payroll of people sent to work at a tech company, according to the mainland media outlet Ningbo Evening News.

Yang discovered that he had sole authority over employee placement, and the labour services company had no review process for salary payments.

He then created an employment record of an employee, surnamed Sun, and applied for salary payments on Sun’s behalf.

Yang then transferred the salary to a bank card under his control, though not in his name.

When the labour services company noticed the salary had not been deposited into Sun’s account, Yang claimed the tech company had delayed payment.

Since 2014, he fabricated records for 22 fake employees, and pocketed salaries and severance pay totalling 16 million yuan. The ghost employees’ individual salaries were not disclosed.

In 2022, the tech company’s finance department noticed that Sun had perfect attendance and received timely salaries, but no one had ever seen him in the office.

The matter was reported to the authorities.

An investigation into attendance records and bank transactions revealed Yang’s eight-year ghost employee scam.

Yang was eventually sentenced to 10 years and two months in prison for embezzlement, stripped of political rights for one year, and fined. He was also ordered to return 1.1 million yuan in stolen funds, with his family returning an additional 1.2 million yuan.

The case, reported by mainland media in March, attracted much attention on social media.

One online observer said: “The ...