A finance officer at Tianjin Port Coke Terminals has been accused of embezzling company funds to the tune of CNY 153.9m ($22m).

Parent company Tianjin Port Development Holdings (TPDH) confirmed the criminal activity in a regulatory statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

“The provincial supervision organ has commenced investigation against the finance officer and retained him in custody in this connection,” TPDH said.

“The investigation is ongoing. The company is proactively cooperating with the supervision organ to investigate and recover the embezzled funds.”

TPDH said that based on a preliminary internal investigation, the other funds of the group “were safe” and that day-to-day operations had not been hindered by the incident.

However, the port group said it expected the incident to affect its financial performance, but the specific amount was not yet confirmed.

TPDH said its board had established an investigation committee to follow up on the incident, but gave few other details.

It said the committee will engage an independent forensic expert to perform an independent review of the alledged embezzlement and what it described as “other related matters”.

China's maritime industry is no stranger to corruption and in the past has seen a number of top officials purged over graft allegations.