China Unicom Units Inflated Sales for Years, Document Shows

China United Network Communications Group Co., the state-run phone giant known as Unicom Group, found what it described as an unprecedented degree of falsified revenue, profit and asset figures at units in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, according to an internal document seen by Bloomberg News. Its shares fell in Hong Kong.

Nine out of 10 branches in Shaanxi engaged in organized, cross-departmental faking of financial figures from 2012 to 2016, and more than 70 managers have been disciplined, according to the document, which was dated April 6. Though the document didn’t give a tally of the fraud, Caixin reported it involved 1.8 billion yuan ($261 million) of revenue in the past five years, citing a document and an internal speech by Unicom’s chairman.