According to Feng Xuedong, spokeswoman for the Yangpu District Prosecutor's Office, the suspect, named Shen, signed contracts with 23 persons from Shanghai and neighboring Jiangsu Province in July and August last year, promising to send them abroad for work.

Shen, actually jobless, claimed he was in charge of recruiting workers for a 40-kilometer highway construction project in Myanmar.

Shen charged each person 15,000 (US$1,814.42) to 20,000 yuan (US$2,419.23) as deposit money, in addition to 10,000 yuan (US$1,209.61) so-called recruitment commission.

Prosecutors said Shen managed to take 12 "workers" to Myanmar in October last year and ditched them there. With no construction project in sight and having used up all their cash, the hapless group turned to the Chinese Embassy in Rangoon, which sent them home this January.

(eastday.com December 12, 2002)