BEIJING, Nov. 18  -- A Chinese rumormonger was sentenced to four years in prison for illegal business practices on Tuesday in Beijing.

Chaoyang District People's Court also fined Yang Xiuyu, manager of Beijing Erma, an interactive marketing firm, 150,000 yuan (24,400 U.S. dollars).

Between 2008 and 2013, one arm of Erma made more than 530,000 yuan by posting false information and deleting posts critical of their clients, and another made 220,000 yuan between May 2012 to 2013 by deleting negative information for others. The two were fined 700,000 yuan in total.

Lu Mei, an employee of Erma, was sentenced to one and a half years in prison and fined 30,000 yuan.

Neither Yang nor Lu will appeal their verdicts.

"I did not realize my behavior violated the law. I hope netizens and colleagues in Internet marketing can draw a lesson from me," said Yang, who had the screen name "Lierchaisi".

In 2011, Yang reached a deal with a cultural development company to stage a publicity stunt for An, an artist, who was to wear a monk's robe and board a boat on a downtown Beijing lake with two young women. A video of their meeting was tweeted and led web users to believe that a monk was having an affair.

Yang was also behind more fakery in 2012 when a young model claimed her "sugar daddy" had promised her a trip to the London Olympics by charter plane, at a cost of 8.88 million yuan, causing uproar on the web.