Chinese gang repatriated from Cambodia, jailed and fined for blackmail and fraud

[theLebanon]

Chinese gang repatriated from Cambodia, jailed and fined for blackmail and fraud

PUBLISHED : Friday, 10 July, 2015, 7:39pm
UPDATED : Friday, 10 July, 2015, 7:43pm

Ellis Liang [email protected]

The gang of 17 Chinese fraudsters worked from Cambodia to blackmail their countrymen. Photo: File Photo

A Chinese blackmail gang who extorted 17 million yuan in public funds from the executive of a state-owned enterprise was sentenced to more than four years in jail on Wednesday, according to Chinese media.

The group was arrested on July 3 in Cambodia, where they had been carrying out their illegal activities, and was repatriated to China, the Yangtse Evening Post reported.

The district court in Wuhan, Hubei, sentenced all but one of them to jail terms of between 4 years 2 months and four-and-a-half years, on top of a 5,000 yuan (HK$6,300) fine each.

The group had made more than 80,000 calls to Chinese residents last year and tricked them into transferring money into their bank account. The newspaper report did not specify how they had conducted their scam.

In addition to collecting 17 million yuan by blackmailing the executive of the state-owned telecommunications company in Wuhan, the group also cheated other Chinese of a total of 778,000 yuan.

The report did not reveal the identity of the executive nor the name of the state-owned firm.