40 sentenced for telecommunication fraud after repatriation from Kenya

BEIJING, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Forty people, 35 from the Chinese mainland and five from Taiwan, were given prison terms ranging from three to 12 years on Friday, after being repatriated from Kenya over telecommunication fraud in August 2016.

A court in Beijing said the group pretended to be government officials to cheat 20 people out of over 1.22 million yuan (about 180,000 U.S. dollars) through money transfers via phone calls from Kenya.

The convicted were fined and some of them deprived of their political rights, the court ruled. The defendants pleaded guilty in court and 10 of them returned their illegal income with the help of relatives.