Shanghai, November 20 Authorities in China have cracked the country’s biggest-ever underground banking network, which handled illegal foreign exchange transactions worth 410 billion yuan ($64 billion), police said today. The bust comes amid a months-long crackdown on illicit outflows, which officials say disrupt China’s financial management, facilitate corruption and help terrorists and criminals launder their dirty money. Over 370 people were detained, prosecuted or otherwise reprimanded in the case, police in Jinhua city said in a statement on their website. Jinhua is in Zhejiang province on China’s eastern coast, a zone known for its shadowy financial networks. Police said one leader of the Zhejiang network was a man named Zhao Mouyi, who transferred over 100 billion yuan overseas using 850 different bank accounts and a dozen Hong Kong front firms. It took police nearly a year to sort through over 1.3 million suspicious transactions. Since April, Chinese authorities have uncovered over 170 big cases of underground banking and money laundering worth over 800 billion yuan, People’s Daily reported. China has tight currency controls, which officially limit individuals to converting $50,000 worth of currency a year, but they are widely evaded. That has helped drive capital outflows to enormous levels this year, adding to strain on the value of the Chinese currency and putting upward pressure on interest rates, even as the Chinese economy slows. Beijing has also launched a massive campaign to crack down on corrupt officials overseas who have taken their fortunes out of the country, part of an effort to shore up the reputation of the ruling Communist Party. Money brokers routinely help individuals and businesses skirt foreign exchange restrictions and onerous bank bureaucracy. Some use such services to facilitate legitimate business, but others may be trying to hide illicit wealth. Transactions can be done in real time, using internet banking.