Four people were sentenced to jail terms ranging from two years
to 15 months for laundering more than one million yuan
(US$133,000), according to a Shanghai court ruling on Monday.
The case is the first to result in convictions for money
laundering since the country's law on anti-money laundering was
enforced on January 1 this year, said the Hongkou District People's
Court in Shanghai.
??? Pan Rumin, the principal offender in the
case, was sentenced to two years and fined 60,000 yuan (US$8,000).
Zhu Suzhen was sentenced to 16 months and fined 20,000 yuan
(US$2,667). The other two accomplices, Li Daming and Gong Yuan,
were given jail terms of 15 months and fines of 20,000 yuan.
According to Pan's confession, he met a Taiwanese man called
"Ayuan" in May 2006. They agreed that Ayuan would siphon money from
people's online bank accounts and Pan would withdraw the money. Pan
would then be entitled to one ninth of the illegal money.
Pan and his accomplices borrowed dozens of ID cards and
registered about 90 bank cards in July and August last year. Ayuan
transferred the stolen money from the online accounts to those
cards.
They withdrew about 11 million yuan until the Shanghai Branch of
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China became suspicious of the
cards and informed the local police on July 20 this year.
The police nabbed the four suspects four days later and have so
far retrieved 300,000 yuan (US$40,000). But "Ayuan" fled with the
rest of the money and is still at large, the court said.
(Xinhua News Agency October 24, 2007)