Man gets life

Shanghai No.2 Intermediate People's Court has sentenced a businessman to life in prison for swindling investors and a bank out of 379 million yuan ($62 million), local media reported Saturday.

The court charged 42-year-old Jin Weiguo, a former member of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) who was listed three times on Forbes' China Philanthropy List, with loan fraud and contract fraud, according to a report in the Oriental Morning Post.

From 1994 to 2011, Jin opened 17 companies, many of which did not engage in any actual business. They did, however, serve as vessels that allowed Jin to attract capital, which he misused for his own personal gain, the report said.

In October 2007, Jin solicited 5 million yuan from private investors for a company he had recently founded called Yidi Outsourcing Co. He then withdrew the money from the company coffers under the pretext that he needed it to decorate offices he had bought in the Suzhou Industrial Park in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, according to a report in the Wenhui Daily.

From February 2008 to March 2010, Jin applied for two business loans from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China for his Ouai E-commerce Co, which he secured with fake documents and collateral that had already been pledged for a different loan. He ended up defrauding the bank out of 39 million yuan, the report said.

In another scheme, Jin purchased a company that sold airline tickets and then lowered the prices to boost sales and show the business was booming. He then offered to sell stakes in the company worth a total of 297 million yuan to two outside companies, promising them that they would cash in because he was planning to have the company listed in the US.

He also managed to bilk 200 of the company's employees out of 5.6 million yuan with the same scheme.

The court ruled that Jin solicited money from investors even though he knew that his companies were insolvent.

Along with a life sentence, the court fined Jin 2 million yuan and seized the money he swindled, according to the Wenhui Daily. Jin's attorney said his client would appeal.