Two foreigners were convicted of fraud Thursday by a Beijing court for cheating Chinese citizens out of large sums of money.
The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court sentenced Jean Marc Vo Van Lairottho from France and Normando Licon Baeza from Mexico to 15 years in prison and a 30,000-yuan (3,614 U.S. dollars)fine each, and ordered the two to be deported from China.
Court investigations show that the two cheated Madam Huang and Madam Song, general managers of two Beijing-based firms, out of 367,700 U.S. dollars last April by promising they could turn dark paper into U.S. dollar with the help of a certain chemical.
The two swindlers were caught red-handed a month later doing the same trick at the China World Hotel in Beijing.
(Xinhua News Agency February 1, 2002)
