Five Sentenced to Death for Minting Fake CoinsA court in east China's Zhejiang Province recently sentenced five men to death for minting and selling one million fake one-yuan coins.The Intermediate People's Court of Taizhou city found Lu Jijin and 29 others guilty of operating a gang engaged in the production and selling of fake coins. The court said the fake coins have spread to Zhejiang, Shanghai, Guangdong and four other Chinese regions, and that only several thousands of them have been retrieved so far. Another defendant Lu Changhe was sentenced to death on probation, and 24 others to jail terms of up to 15 years. According to official sources, courts in Zhejiang handled 676 fake money cases in 2000, involving nearly 1,000 people. Thanks to the enhanced crackdown by the police, the number of cases and money involved decreased 90 percent and 69 percent, respectively, in the first half of this year, the sources said. |
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