Suspects detained by police last week in an investigation into stock market malpractice, including spreading false information, taking bribes and insider dealing, are said to have confessed to wrongdoings.
Several people, including a financial journalist, an official from China's top securities watchdog and four senior executives with China's biggest brokerage have subsequently been placed under "criminal compulsory measures," Xinhua news agency said.
"Compulsory measures" can mean a number of things, including compelled appearance, bail pending trial, residential surveillance, detention and formal arrest.
Wang Xiaolu, a reporter with the Caijing business magazine, is accused of "colluding with others and fabricating and spreading fake information on securities and futures market," according to the Xinhua report.
It said that Wang had confessed to writing a story on China's stock market "based on hearsay and his own subjective judgment without conducting due verifications."
On July 20, Wang wrote that the China Securities Regulatory Commission was studying plans for government funds to exit the market. The CSRC denied the story, calling it "irresponsible."
According to Xinhua, Wang admitted that "the false report" had "caused panic and disorder in the stock market, seriously undermined market confidence, and inflicted huge losses on the country and investors."
The central government launched a rescue package in an attempt to arrest a rout that has wiped nearly 40 percent off the market's value since a mid-June high. Measures included setting up a government-backed fund to buy shares and a crackdown on rumor-mongering, malicious short selling and other market irregularities.
Xinhua said Liu Shufan, an official with the CSRC, had confessed to insider trading, taking bribes and forging official seals.
Liu is said to have admitted taking advantage of his position to secure approval of a private placement from securities authorities for a listed company and helping to boost the company's share price in return for several million yuan in bribes.
Xinhua said Liu admitted to making millions of yuan by trading shares with insider information from two companies.
Liu is also said to have confessed forging official seals to allow his mistress to buy a house in Shanghai, according to the report.
Four senior executives with CITIC Securities Ñ Xu Gang, Liu Wei, Fang Qingli and Chen Rongjie Ñ have been put under "criminal compulsory measures" for suspected insider trading, according to Xinhua. It said they had also made confessions.
In a statement released on Sunday, CITIC Securities confirmed that several senior managers had been summoned by police to assist with an investigation and said the company would be examining its businesses for potential problems.
In a separate report, Xinhua said 197 people had been punished and 165 online accounts closed for spreading rumors online related to the stock market and the fatal blasts in Tianjin. Details of the punishment weren't given.
Citing the Ministry of Public Security, it said the rumors included one about a suicide because of the market plunge, one that put the number of dead in the Tianjin blasts at "at least 1,300," and several about events marking the end of WWII.
