Man jailed for illegally borrowing 400 mln yuan from public

A man in east China's Zhejiang Province was given a nine-year jail term for illegally borrowing more than 400 million yuan (87.8 million U.S. dollars) from 60 companies and individuals, according to a local court ruling.

Chen Jianming, 39, was jailed on charges of illegally collecting the public deposit. He was also fined 500,000 yuan and demanded to return the money to his debtors, a Jiangbei District People's court of Ningbo said Friday afternoon.

Chen, owner of two local companies, promised a high interest return to his debtors and invested the money in real estate, stock market and usurious loans between 2006 to July 2008, according to the court.

Chen was caught by police in August 2008.

Source: Xinhua