Italy's financial police on Wednesday arrested 18 people suspected of making illicit cash transfers totalling more than a billion euros, most of them to China through a British company.

The suspects are accused of having laundered profits from the import of counterfeit goods made in China through money-transfer agencies, defrauding the tax authorities in the process, the police said.

The suspects were described as mostly Rome-based ethnic Chinese who were known to police.

To move their alleged ill-gotten gains, the businessmen reportedly used British cash transfer company Sigue Global Services Ltd and took care to ensure the amounts of each transaction did not exceed levels which require a declaration to authorities under international money-laundering rules.

Sigue assets worth 13 million euros, equivalent to the company's profits on the transfers, have been frozen pending the outcome of the inquiry, police said.

Former mayor of Nanjing charged with corruption
Beijing (AFP) Dec 17, 2014 - The former mayor of the Chinese city of Nanjing -- who has been described by central authorities as "morally corrupt" -- has been charged with bribery, the country's top prosecutor's office said Wednesday.

Ji Jianye's case will be handled by prosecutors and courts in Yantai in the eastern province of Shandong, the Supreme People's Procuratorate said on its website, without saying when his trial would begin.

Ji, who was expelled from the Communist Party in January, was found to have "received a huge amount of money and gifts either by himself or through his family members", the ruling party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a statement at the time.

The politician is among those who have fallen since the party launched an anti-corruption campaign after Xi Jinping took over as its leader two years ago.

Ji -- who earned the nickname "Bulldozer Ji" for his promotion of construction projects in the city of eight million -- was sacked last year for "suspected serious disciplinary violations", code for the graft that has become endemic in China.

A state-backed newspaper said at the time that he was investigated over economic corruption and construction projects, quoting sources as saying he awarded projects to a company with which he was connected.