Husband arrested for fake deposit certificate

A 42-year-old man has been arrested for buying a counterfeit 70 million yuan ($11.4 million) certificate of deposit after his wife tried to cash it in at a local bank, Pudong New Area police said Tuesday.

The man's wife, who was not identified, took the certificate to the Agricultural Bank of China branch on Sanlin Road on July 23 to withdraw 2,000 yuan, a police press release said.

The wife handed over the certificate and told the bank teller that she wanted the balance of the deposit rolled over, police said. Although initially shocked at the amount of the deposit, the bank's staff quickly determined that the certificate was a fake and called the police.

A responding officer talked to the woman and learned that the certificate belonged to her husband, a migrant worker surnamed Zhang. She told the officer that it should have only been worth 7,000 yuan.

Zhang had bought the phony certificate of deposit to trick his wife into believing he had paid back a 6,000 yuan loan he borrowed from her in 2007. He had promised to give 7,000 yuan in return a year later.

A year passed and Zhang didn't have the money, so he bought the fake certificate of deposit from a counterfeiter. He planned to eventually replace it with a real one once he got enough money.

The counterfeiter apparently made a mistake when creating the certificate, which is why it was for 70 million yuan, but Zhang never noticed. Police have released him on bail.