The Chinese police have detained 10 company heads suspected of fabricating pollution data, as the nation extends a crackdown on environment-related crimes.

The suspects are from eight companies, including a sewage plant in Dongguan, Guangdong province, and a joint venture invested by Coca-Cola in Gansu province. They are accused of falsifying figures to get pollution treatment subsidies, manipulating environment monitoring results or hindering such monitoring, Zou Shoumin, head of the environment inspection bureau at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said on Thursday.

The ministry reported the cases to the police, as it does not have the authority to detain people.

Some of the suspects may face criminal lawsuits, the ministry said. Under Chinese law, a person convicted of polluting the environment can receive a prison term up to seven years.

To encourage pollution treatment, the Chinese government has offered considerable subsidies. The plant in Dongguan fabricated the volume of pollution it treated, inflating the number to gain an extra 20 million yuan ($3.1 million) in subsidies.

It is also suspected of deception by illegally pumping clean water into its sewers to dilute wastewater and make it seem better for water quality tests, the ministry said.

The ministry said it has conducted special inspections to uncover environmental fraud since July, and used new technologies to detect wrongdoing, including drone aircraft.

Xinhua - China Daily