In most embezzlement-by-an-employee cases, the bottleneck is not the criminal charge — it is the books. The threshold for filing a criminal case is set out in statutory provisions and publicly accessible: effective May 2026, the minimum amount triggering prosecution for embezzlement by an employee will decrease from RMB 60,000 to RMB 30,000, and the threshold for ‘a particularly large amount’ will decrease from RMB 1,000,000 to RMB 200,000. In practice, however, economic crime investigation units still commonly apply a de facto threshold around RMB 60,000. The range between RMB 30,000 and RMB 60,000 is especially awkward: legally sufficient, yet practically prone to being discouraged by investigators; whether the case proceeds often hinges entirely on how thoroughly the amounts are traced and whether supporting source documents align.
A more immediate hurdle than the monetary threshold is documentation. Clients approaching us typically possess only limited materials: a few contracts they retained, a handful of bank transfer screenshots, and perhaps a financial statement sent via WeChat as a single photo. Crucially, accounting firms lack legal authority to access a company’s bank accounts — not because we refuse, but because we cannot: without lawful basis, banks will not release even a single line of bank statements. A common practical approach is therefore to first file a shareholder information-rights action. As a shareholder, the client may formally request access to the books; the company will usually refuse. Yet under this cause of action — provided the shareholder’s identity is clear and procedural requirements are met — courts routinely order companies to produce their books. That court order constitutes the legal basis to access the company's books, enabling the subsequent forensic audit engagement. This is why the first step in many embezzlement-by-an-employee cases is not filing a criminal complaint, but initiating civil litigation: a criminal complaint requires both a quantified loss amount and supporting evidence — both of which must be derived from the books.