According to International Finance News, Chen, a junior college graduate from a local polytechnic, joined CCB Life Insurance Co in 2004 and quickly rose to an important position in the company because of her outstanding sales performance.

While her counterparts were selling 2,000 to 3,000 yuan insurance policies, she was selling policies worth 10,000 yuan, the newspaper said on Thursday.

In 2009, Chen joined Fanxin and was promoted to a major executive in two years. On Oct 19, 2011, she was named the company's executive director and general manager.

Sources said Chen was the major shareholder of Fanxin, and the other shareholder was her mother, Lin Caiying.

The newspaper said her flight was carefully planned - before her departure, she cut all contact with the company. Public materials show the general manager and person legally responsible for Fanxin was changed to Su Xueping as of February.

The newspaper also claimed Chen fled with the deputy general manager of Fanxin, Jiang Jie, who she hired one year ago. In the news release on Monday, the Ministry of Public Security said Chen was caught in Fiji. It declined to verify on Thursday the reported capture of both Chen and Jiang in the island nation.

Sources also said a group of attractive female salespeople helped Fanxin grow to a major life insurance broker. Founded in 2007, Fanxin claims to have sold more than 480 million yuan in insurance policies in 2012 alone.

"The Fanxin saleswomen may have no experience in the insurance sector, but most of them look like models," International Finance News quoted an unidentified source as saying.

"They were dressed in miniskirts when visiting customers, and the value of each of their insurance policies ranged from hundreds of thousands of yuan to more than 1 million yuan."