07 August 2009 :
two people were executed for fraud after China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) approved their sentences. The Intermediate People's Court of Hangzhou in southeast Zhejiang Province sentenced Si Chaxian to death. Si, the owner of three companies, collected 167 million yuan by defrauding more than 300 partners from 2003 to 2007. Du Yimin, a businesswoman in Zhejiang Province, was convicted of "fraudulent raising of public funds" and sentenced to death in March 2008. Her appeal was rejected on January 13, 2009. According to the verdict, she had illegally raised approximately 700 million yuan (US$102 million) from hundreds of people investing in her beauty parlours. Her lawyer stated that Du Yimin should have been convicted for the lesser offence of "illegally collecting public deposits," which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 yuan (US$73,000). Du Yimin’s death sentence caused a debate about the consistency in the application of the death penalty in the People's Republic of China. The day before she was sentenced to death, an official who used 15.8 billion yuan of public funds to cover his personal spending was sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment.(Sources: Xinhua, 05/08/2009; AI, 07/08/2009)
