Multi-million dollar ant fraudster sentenced to death in China

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2007

BEIJING (AFP) — A fast-talking entrepreneur in northeast China has been sentenced to death for trying to sell ants at a hugely inflated price to unsuspecting investors, state media has said.

Wang Zhendong was condemned to die after a court in Liaoning province found him guilty of a fraud scheme amounting to a staggering three billion yuan (390 million dollars), the Xinhua news agency said.

Wang had duped over 10,000 investors with the promise of high yields for investment into his ant-breeding scheme.

He also had been selling bags of ants, a frequent ingredient in some types of Chinese medicine, promising huge profits, according to the agency.

Apparently, the only one who profited was Wang himself, as the bags went for 10,000 yuan a piece, or 50...