By Pang Lei

Xinhua News Agency reported late on Friday that China's Supreme People's Court had overturned the death sentence handed down to Wu Ying in a high-profile case involving illegal lending.

The 30-year-old, who for a brief period was ranked by the Hurun Report as one of China's richest women, was originally sentenced to death by an intermediate court in December 2009 on charges of "illegal fund-raising". The Zhejiang's Higher People's Court upheld the original death sentence in a verdict handed down in January this year.

After completing a review of the case, the Supreme People's Court did find that Wu Ying had committed "financial fraud involving huge amounts of money" and argued that she should be punished accordingly, however, the court went on to say that it had decided not to approve the use of the death sentence in this case and announced that it was returning the case to the Zhejiang's Higher People's Court for a re-trial.

The Wu Ying case has attracted plenty of debate in China due to its implications for the widespread but illegal practice of raising funds outside the official financial system.

Arrested in February 2007, Ms. Wu was held for two years before she faced charges of embezzling nearly 390 million yuan from 11 people in what the China Daily described as "one of the country's biggest financial frauds committed by a woman."

Initially, Wu had been charged with illegal fundraising, which carried a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and would've been heard at a district-level court. But as investigations proceeded, the charges were altered so that when the case came to trial, Ms. Wu was accused of fund-raising fraud (集资诈骗罪).

Despite Wu's denials that she had cheated anyone and that all the money she had borrowed had been invested rather than used for personal use, on 18 Dec 2009, the Jinhua City Intermediate People's Court found her guilty, sentenced her to death, stripped her of her political rights for life and confiscated all her possessions.

Links and Sources
Xinhua News Agency: 最高人民法院未核准吴英死刑 该案发回浙江省高院重审
Economic Observer Online: Considered Opinion: The Wu Ying Case