118 sentenced for 100m yuan pyramid scheme
Print Edition
A COURT in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region yesterday sentenced 118 people for their involvement in a pyramid scheme scam.
The defendants, including leaders and major members of the scheme, were given jail terms ranging from 1 year and 7 months to 10 years for organizing pyramid selling activities by Nanning Intermediate People’s Court in Guangxi’s capital.
The multi-level marketing network, running since 2009, had nearly 5,000 members. Each new member was asked to pay between 3,800 yuan (US$600) to 69,800 yuan on the promise of profits and promotions, the court heard.
The scam involved more than 100 million yuan.
Members of the network came from several provinces and regions, including Xinjiang, Anhui, Sichuan, Shandong and Gansu. The youngest member was aged 26, the oldest 69.
The 40-tier pyramid ring was busted in April 2012.
Pyramid selling has been banned in China since 1998 but remains rife in many less-developed regions. It has evolved from touting fake products to more sophisticated scams and has spread to the Internet.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
