Two swindlers pretending to introduce overseas investment were recently jailed and fined in Zhongshan, the Southern Metropolitan News reported.

Hong Kong resident He Ruicheng, president of a Hong Kong company, was sentenced to seven years jail and fined 20,000 yuan (US$2,415), while Macao resident Chen Yunrui, vice general manager of the company, was given five years jail and fined the same amount.

Starting in 1996, the pair conducted a lot of fraudulent deals on the mainland, saying they were authorized by a Japanese man to invest more than US$900 billion in "assets of Chinese people" controlled by him. They said they were collecting a commission of US$2 million for the first installment of US$20 billion.

The paper did not say whether they succeeded or how much money they took. It reported two cases but did not say whether they were part of the "assets of Chinese people" fraud.

He and Chen fraudulently obtained 155,000 yuan (US$18,720) from a resident surnamed Yang in the name of borrowing for allowances for business trips and commissions in introducing a US$530 billion investment. When the plot came to light, Chen's wife returned 60,000 yuan to Yang on behalf of Chen.

In 2000, He and Chen joined some others to establish a hi-tech company in Longchang County in Sichuan Province. The two promised to invest US$6 million but did not invest at all. In 2001, they said they would invest US$600 million in China and give 10 percent of that to the Longchang Company, asking a cosponsor surnamed Ma to raise HK$5 million to start the investment. Ma was in the process of borrowing the money when the two were arrested.

(Shenzhen Daily August 11, 2003)