Chinese woman sentenced to death with reprieve for fraud

A 61-year-old Chinese woman was today sentenced to death with two years reprieve for cheating investors of a whopping USD 90.5 million.
Qian Yuezhen was convicted of illegally acquiring public deposits and illegal fund raising, the Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court said.
All of her personal wealth has been confiscated.
Qian suffered shortage of funds while 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, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
From January to September 2011, 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, the report said.
That Qian chose to come back to China and confessed to her crimes was the reason for the reprieve, the court said.
In China's criminal law, death sentence with reprieve is a punishment whereby the death sentence is suspended for two years. The convicted person will be executed if found to intentionally commit further crimes during the two years following the sentencing.