6 Chinese Accused in $380-Million Scam; Chief Faces Death Penalty

China brought capital charges Friday against six people in the biggest corruption scandal of the Communist era, with 57-year-old Deng Bin facing death for heading a pyramid scam alleged to have cost state firms $380 million.

The announcement of her indictment in the huge fund-raising scheme followed an 11-month inquiry that stretched through dozens of towns and cities across China and reached into the Beijing offices of the intelligence-gathering State Security Bureau, Chinese sources said.

The Supreme People’s Procurator’s office has completed its investigation into the illegal fund-raising scheme in which Deng’s Xinxing Industrial Co. approached or bribed more than 300 city and provincial units and individuals across China, the New China News Agency said.

Local prosecutors on July 21 indicted Deng, president of Xinxing, based in the booming town of Wuxi 77 miles west of Shanghai, on four charges of profiteering, taking bribes, corruption and embezzling public funds, the agency said.

Han Wanlong, vice president of the Beijing parent company, Xinglong Industrial Co., was charged with profiteering and taking bribes and four others were accused of profiteering.

Chinese courts regularly execute those convicted in major cases of corruption, an ill that President and Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin has said could topple the party.

Deng’s alleged Ponzi scam amassed 3.2 billion yuan ($380 million) between August, 1989, and August, 1994, through offering high interest rates to investors, the news agency said.

The scheme fell apart last year when Deng was unable to pay back capital.