SHANGHAI (REUTERS) - Chinese police have detained a senior investment executive who was allegedly involved in illegal fundraising and embezzlement of 160 million yuan (S$35 million), state media reported, despite him fleeing to Thailand and undergoing plastic surgery.

Police in China's Jiangxi province said they made the arrest in late November in Pattaya in southern Thailand, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Thursday (Dec 17).

China has been cracking down on risky and illegal behaviour in the finance sector since a stock market crash in the summer, which spooked regulators and central government, pulling in senior finance executives and officials for questioning.

Authorities said the man, surnamed He, had undergone various procedures to hide his identity and avoid detection. "The changes are conspicuous. He got double eyelid surgery and removed buccal (cheek) fat, although his body shape remained roughly the same," Xinhua said, citing a police officer surnamed Huang. It said police believed he had also had laser eye surgery.

Xinhua said He had carried out the illegal behaviour as the legal representative of an investment management company between Jan 2013 and July 2015.