Chinese man given life imprisonment for Ponzi scheme

A man has been sentenced to life in prison for orchestrating a Ponzi scheme involving more than 30 million yuan (4.9 million U.S. dollars), a court in southeast China's Zhejiang Province said on Saturday. Wang Xiaoqing, 30, collected money by offering double-digit interest rates, the Intermediate People's Court in the city of Quzhou said. Wang told investors that the funds would be used to build a hotel. Most of the money was spent on paying interest and on Wang's extravagant lifestyle, the court said. According to the court's order, all properties of Wang will be confiscated and money collected from the Ponzi scheme returned to investors.