Three executives from a company based in the northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region were jailed for taking more than 2.1 billion yuan (300 million US dollars) in illegal deposits, a local court said on Tuesday.

Northwest Securities Co. Ltd secured the money by signing asset and treasury bond trust agreements with organizations and individuals from July 1999 to December 2005, promising a set rate of return. In essence, its behavior was illegal deposit taking, a Yinchuan Municipal People's Court ruling said.

Ma Shibing, Lv Li and Jiang Wei, executives in charge of the deposits, were jailed between one to three years with a reprieve of one to three years. They were also fined 50,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan.

The company didn't pay back 433 million yuan to depositors and declared bankruptcy to repay the debt on Jan. 11, 2007, the court said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2008)