Firms fined, 15 people sentenced for fraud

Fifteen people were sentenced to jail and three companies were fined for fraud for illegally raising 43.4 billion yuan ($6.4 billion) by Shanghai No 1 People's Intermediate Court on Wednesday.

Shanghai Kuailu Investment Group was fined 1.5 billion yuan and its two affiliated companies, East Hongqiao Microcredit and East Hongqiao Financing Guarantee, were fined 200 million yuan each.

The companies' former executives, Huang Jialiu and Wei Yanping, were sentenced to life in prison. Another 13 people, including Xu Qi and Zhou Mengmeng, were sentenced to 9 to 15 years.