* Shares surge in early trading on NYSE, TSX (Adds background, details on share price move)

TORONTO, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Embattled miner Silvercorp (SVM.TO), caught in a maelstrom of anonymous fraud allegations, said on Thursday it is pushing ahead with a share repurchase plan, and paid an average C$7.97 a share in the buyback.

Silvercorp, which has shed over $1.5 billion in market value in the last five months, said it has acquired nearly 4 million of its outstanding shares since June 17, when its board authorized a buyback of up to 10 million shares.

The Vancouver-based company, which operates silver mines in China, is the latest China-focused and North American listed company to fall into the cross-hairs of short-sellers who have published scathing fraud allegations.

Silvercorp denies the allegations, which are similar to those that felled Sino-Forest (TRE.TO), not long ago the largest Canadian-listed forestry company. Sino-Forest and many other China-focused companies are now at the center of regulatory investigations and lawsuits.

Silvercorp, which operates silver mines in China, on Wednesday issued a raft of figures on its tax payments, assay results and other details that it said disprove the short-seller allegations against it. Chief Executive Rui Feng dismissed the allegations of fraud and accused short-sellers of using a "short and distort" scheme.

Shares of the company rose 7 percent to C$6.95 in early trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, while its New York-listed shares rose nearly 10 percent to $7.12. (Reporting by Euan Rocha; editing by Janet Guttsman)