Li Dawei, a Chinese businessman, was sentenced to death...

Li Dawei, a Chinese businessman, was sentenced to death for bank fraud by an intermediate court in Xian city, northern Shaanxi province, after he promised a company high interest rates but swindled it out of some 29.9 million yuan (3.6 million dollars).
An accomplice, Chen Yuhui, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the scam, the Beijing Legal Daily reported.
In August 2000, Li, the legal representative for the Zhengda Cultural Audio Visual Corp., promised a local securities company 1.0 million yuan in interest if it placed 20 million yuan of its funds in a certain bank for a period of one year.
Li, who did not have an agreement with the bank on the interest, then forged bank and company seals and transferred the funds through fake bank documents to the accounts of the Zhengda corporation, the paper said.
Li also persuaded the unidentified securities company to place an additional 9.9 million yuan in cash into the bank, which he also swindled, it said. After uncovering the case, police confiscated some 2.23 million yuan in cash and a villa and car bought by Li and valued at 6.0 million yuan, the paper said.