Woman sentenced to death with reprieve for fraud

A court in Zhejiang Province on Monday sentenced a woman to death with two years reprieve for cheating investors out of more than 570 million yuan (90.5 million US dollars).

Qian Yuezhen, 61, was convicted of illegally acquiring public deposits and illegal fundraising, the Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court said.

All of her personal wealth has been confiscated.

Qian suffered shortage of funds when making investments between 2007 and 2008 and began illegally acquiring deposits. She took over 270 million yuan from more than 100 people from 2007 to the end of 2010, together with her accomplices.

She began her illegal fundraising in 2011 when she knew for certain that she could not pay the money back. From January to September, she raised more than 300 million yuan, and only paid 30 million yuan in interest.

Qian fled to Finland on September 24, 2011 and came back to China of her own accord on November 20 the same year.

The amount of the fraud was extraordinarily large and caused significant damage to both the state and the people. In such cases the death penalty is mandatory.

That Qian chose to come back to China and confess to her crimes was the reason for the reprieve, the court said.