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98-year-old man stands trial for fraud in Beijing

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-04 22:26

BEIJING -- A Chinese man, 98, stood trial Tuesday before a Beijing court for charges of swindling 749,000 yuan (US$109,508).

Zhou Zhiping (R) appears at a Beijing crimial court Tuesday February 3, 2009. The 98-year-old senior, charged with money swindling, is the oldest defendant ever to appear before a Beijing criminal court. [bjyouth.com]

Zhou Zhiping, the oldest defendant ever to appear before a Beijing criminal court, was charged with swindling the money from a 74-year-old American Chinese man surnamed Chen, who had two doctorate degrees in physics and chemistry, according to the Chaoyang District People's Court.

The court heard that Zhou was introduced to Chen by Xiao Wanni, 50, and Wang Shengkun, 58. They convinced Chen that Zhou used to be a high-ranking official of Kuomintang and a senior official of Yunnan Province.

Zhou told Chen he had connections with state leaders and was unfreezing a large amount of "national funds."

According to Zhou, the "national funds" were the money that Kuomintang officials deposited in US banks, which were valued at 1,300 trillion Kuomintang currency. He said if Chen could finance him to unfreeze that money he could get a reward of 20 million yuan.

Chen gave the trio a total of 749,000 yuan from April 2007 to June 2008 before he realized he had been conned.

During the hearing, Xiao and Wang said they were not involved in the fraud and raised evidence against Zhou. Zhou denied the alleged fraud. "That's nonsense!" Zhou said, "I'm not guilty. I won't be jailed."

The court said if Zhou was convicted he would sentenced to at least 10 years in imprisonment.

The court hearing will continue.