Beijing court sentences Ponzi scheme operators to life in prison News
Beijing court sentences Ponzi scheme operators to life in prison

[JURIST] A Beijing intermediate court [backgrounder] sentenced two brothers to life in prison on Tuesday after ruling that the brothers’ peer-to-peer lending company, Ezubao, was a Ponzi scheme. One of the brothers, Ding Ning, was founder [Reuters report] of the company and chairman of the Anhui Yucheng Holdings Group. His crimes included illegal fundraising and “smuggling precious metals.” The Ponzi scheme collected the equivalent of over USD $9 billion from nearly one million investors, making it “close to one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in modern Chinese history.” Twenty-five others involved in scheme were also arrested for up to 15 years.

In January China’s President Xi Jinping declared [JURIST report] that the nation’s battle against corruption “must go deeper,” stressing the need for the Communist Party to be governed “systematically, creatively and efficiently.” That month a former China Nation Petroleum general manager was sentenced [JURIST report] to 15 years in prison for corruption. In December the Chinese government announced [JURIST report] that it will prosecute Ma Jian, a former vice minister of China’s Ministry of State Security, on bribery charges. That same month, the Chinese government also arrested [JURIST report] Iat Hong and Chin Hung of Macau, and Bo Zheng of China on cybersecurity allegations. In October 2015 a former chairman of CNPC was sentenced to 16 years in prison for corruption [JURIST report].

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.