A Chinese company chairman has been sentenced to death for running a scam involving giant ants, via BBC:
Wang Zhendong promised investors returns of up to 60% if they put money into the fictitious ant-breeding project, the court heard.
Wang, from Liaoning province, raised 3bn yuan ($390m; ¬£200m) in three years, prosecutors said…
More than 10,000 investors signed 100,000 contracts with the company before the case was investigated in June 2005, Xinhua news agency reported. [Full Text]
Related AP article says, “Wang Zhendong, chairman of Yingkou Donghua Trading Group Co., lured 10,000 investors between 2002 and 2005 by promising them returns of up to 60 percent on their stake in two companies that existed only on paper, the Xinhua News Agency said. Only $1.3 million of the swindled money had been recovered when the case was filed last June with the Intermediate People’s Court in Yingkou, a port city in northeastern China, Xinhua said.”
