The Xi'an sports lottery case, which has drawn nationwide attention since last March, came to an end on Wednesday, with its previous court decisions upheld.

On February 23, the High People's Court of Shaanxi Province made a last instance adjudication that rejected the appeal of defendants Yang Yongming, Sun Chenggui and Fan Hong who had been convicted of swindling in lottery selling, accepting bribes and neglecting their duty in the March Xi'an sports lottery case.

"Appellants Yang Yongming and Sun Chenggui colluded with each other, and defrauded cash and automobiles valued at 2,515,240 yuan (US$303,000)," the court considered.

In order to obtain illegal benefits, Yang Yongming paid out bribes of 426,000 yuan (US$51,300) to eight governmental officials, the court said.

"Appellant Fan Hong, a former director of the Xi'an Municipal Sport Lottery Administration Center, exploited his office to seek interests for Yang Yongming and took a bribe of 940,000 yuan (US$111,900) from Yang. And Fan also gave up his duty of supervising the selling of the sports lottery, enabling Yang to practise fraud, which had an abominable social influence," the court said.

The High People's Court of Shaanxi Province affirmed the ruling made in the first instance which convicted the three of committing fraud, bribery and negligence of duty. The three were sentenced to 19, 17 and 11 years' imprisonment.

Yang Yongming, a 33-year-old private businessman, who was a contractor with the Shaanxi Provincial Sports Lottery Administration Center, started selling tickets in Shaanxi in 2000, and he cheated continually to make money from the lottery sales.

Yang's cheating was exposed by accident in March 2004, when he held large-scale selling activities in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province.

During lottery sales from March 20 to March 25 in downtown Xi'an, Yang made a plan to cheat on the four top prizes, each with a BMW325i car and 120,000 yuan (US$14,460).

By making marks on the envelopes which contained the numbers for the top prizes, Yang Yongming arranged for Sun Chenggui to dispense the prizes. Yang also employed another four people to falsely claim the top prizes, according to local police.

The scam was exposed when a local farmer, Liu Liang, was mistakenly given an envelope containing a top prize by Yang Yongming.

(China Daily February 25, 2005)