Seven sentenced to death for tax fraud in China
Seven people have been sentenced to death for tax fraud in the first verdicts of what could add up to China's biggest corruption case.
The seven claimed export tax rebates worth more than 58 million yuan, the equivalent of £4.8m, using fake tax receipts from shell companies.
The verdicts are the first to emerge from a nationwide investigation into a massive fraud operations.
The scam involved export tax rebates that officials say could dwarf a multi-billion-dollar smuggling scandal at Xiamen.
Beijing has yet to reveal the extent of the fraud but Customs and tax officials say it could be at least 50 billion yuan, about £4.1 billion, on a par with the Xiamen case which has implicated top national officials.
"A series of cases of export tax rebate fraud are under investigation which may involve 50 billion yuan," an official from the Shanghai Customs Office said.
The seven sentenced to death are Huang Zhenchi, Lin Sucun, Huang Wenlong, He Tao, Lin Zhenyu, Chen Hanjie and Zhou Songqing, a former prosecutor in Guangdong's Puning city.
