The Supreme People’s Court did not approve the death sentence for Wu Ying, who was convicted of cheating investors out of several hundred million yuan.
Earlier on January 18th the Zhejiang Provincial Higher People’s Court sentenced Wu Ying death penalty for financial fraud. Since then, a number of renowned scholars and lawyers have spoken openly that the Wu Ying’s crime has a profound institutional reasons, and should not apply the death penalty.
After reviewing the Wu case, the supreme court remanded for retrial in the Zhejiang Higher People’s Court.
Private lending is extremely active in China, particularly in the economically developed Yangtze River Delta area. Although there’s no legal protection for private lending with lending rate four times higher than formal financial institutions, many companies are still taking the risk to arrange loans from the private sector to bypass the strict credit risk control.