Chinese vocational school graduate arrested for printing 10m yuan of fake banknotes

A vocational school graduate in eastern China has been arrested for counterfeiting money with a total nominal amount of more than 10 million yuan (HK$11.7 million) with a technique he invented himself, local media reports.

The 23-year-old man, who studied in Yantai, Shandong province, designed a fake 20 yuan template using the Photoshop graphics editing software and produced more than 500,000 notes using 20 printers, the news portal of the Qilu Evening News reported.

The counterfeit money, which looks realistic, would be sold for 800 yuan per kilogram, with a nominal amount of 20,000 yuan.

The fake notes had been sold to 15 provinces and 27 cities when the man, identified only by his surname Li, was arrested in late May.