Chinese woman sentenced to death for fraud

HOHHOT - A court in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region on Tuesday rejected the appeal of a woman sentenced to death for cheating investors out of 1.23 billion yuan ($200 million).

The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Higher People's Court upheld the verdict of the Erdos Intermediate People's Court in the case of Su Yenyu, 42, who was sentenced to death on January 25 this year.

All of her personal wealth has been confiscated.

Su cheated investors out of 1.23 billion yuan using high returns as bait, personally misappropriating 552 million yuan.

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

Su began her illegal fundraising in 2006, using the funds to invest in restaurants, health clubs, coal mines and farms, even buying lottery tickets worth 20 million yuan. She burned all documents relating to her business between 2006 to October 2009. She surrendered to police on September 20, 2011.

Ren Wenxiang, a man who supported Su's endeavors, was sentenced to 5 years for fraud and fined 500,000 yuan.

Erdos, an emerging city surrounded by vast grasslands, has made a fortune from large reserves of coal and natural gas in the past decade.