In one instance, JPMorgan reportedly hired the son of a former Chinese regulator who is now chairman of Everbright Group, a major financial conglomerate based in Shanghai. After the son joined JPMorgan, the US bank went on to win a number of major assignments from Everbright, including one to advise on an IPO for one of its units, according to the report. As I've said above, this kind of hiring shouldn't surprise anyone, and isn't really even limited to China.

It's quite common for western companies to hire friends and relatives of their major business contacts as personal favors, and is part of the broader business culture. For that reason, I doubt this US probe will result in any criminal investigation. But the big danger could come if China decides to open its own investigation into the matter, which looks like a strong possibility in the current climate where a large number of foreign firms are being investigated for everything from price fixing to bribery.

This kind of probe has become fairly standard fare not only in the telecoms industry, but throughout China's big state-run firms over the last few years. The most recent campaign is being spearheaded by new President Xi Jinping, who has made cleaning up government corruption and excessive spending one of his major goals. This latest action, combined with the recent broader explosion in corporate probes, could indicate that we'll see an acceleration in such probes against top officials at big state-run firms in the months ahead. Accordingly, I would expect to see more similar headlines in the fall, perhaps reaching all the way up to the top echelons of one or two major state-owned companies.

Bottom line: New probes against JPMorgan and a China Mobile executive reflect the acceleration of a recent campaign to clean up corruption in China's corporate sector.