98-year-old Chinese man stands trial for fraud

BEIJING, Feb. 4 (Chinese media) -- A Chinese man, 98, stood trial Tuesday before a

Beijing court for charges of swindling 749,000 yuan (109,508 U.S. dollars).

Zhou Zhiping, the oldest defendant ever to appear before a Beijing criminal

court, was charged with swindling the money from a 74-year-old American Chinese

man surnamed Chen, who had two doctorate degrees in physics and chemistry,

according to the Chaoyang District People's Court.

The court heard that Zhou was introduced to Chen by Xiao Wanni, 50, and

Wang Shengkun, 58. They convinced Chen that Zhou used to be a high-ranking

official of Kuomintang and a senior official of Yunnan Province.

Zhou told Chen he had connections with state leaders and was unfreezing a

large amount of "national funds."

According to Zhou, the "national funds" were the money that Kuomintang

officials deposited in U.S. banks, which were valued at1,300 trillion Kuomintang

currency. He said if Chen could finance him to unfreeze that money he could get

a reward of 20 million yuan.

Chen gave the trio a total of 749,000 yuan from April 2007 to June 2008

before he realized he had been conned.

During the hearing, Xiao and Wang said they were not involved in the fraud

and raised evidence against Zhou. Zhou denied the alleged fraud. "That's

nonsense!" Zhou said, "I'm not guilty. I won't be jailed."

The court said if Zhou was convicted he would sentenced to at least 10

years in imprisonment.

The court hearing will continue.