25 in court for nation's largest fraud trial
The nation's largest fraud trial started in Hainan yesterday, with former Dalian Securities president Shi Xue and 24 co-defendants facing charges of embezzling 26 billion yuan.
Shi, also the former head of the Hainan Huayin International Trust and Investment Corporation, and his co-accused appeared in Haikou Intermediate People's Court.
Dalian Securities, which was shut down in April, was the first victim of the mainland campaign to probe corporate malpractice and clean up the unruly stock market.
The defendants yesterday were accused of embezzling state funds, illegally raising money and cheating people with fake contracts, according to the China News Service.
Shi was accused of embezzling 260 million yuan, the highest amount ever attributed to one person on the mainland. About 236 million yuan came from the Dalian firm and a further 28 million from the Hainan company.
The report quoted the prosecutor as saying Shi had forged false contracts and withheld company profits. He also is alleged to have cheated 250 million yuan out of his business partners in the signing and execution of contracts, and of illegally gathering 2.4 billion yuan in deposits, of which 770 million was not recoverable.
Shi was detained by Hainan police in April 2002 and formally arrested five months later. His co-accused are former officials from five other financial institutions allegedly involved in the fraud case.
Liang Yong , a Beijing-based property developer, allegedly embezzled more than 170 million yuan of the brokerage's funds and diverted a further 100 million.
The trial is expected to last a week, according to the report.
