BBC NEWS
Chinese milk scam duo face death
Two men have been given the death penalty for their involvement in China's contaminated milk scandal.
The former boss of the Sanlu dairy at the centre of the scandal was given life imprisonment.
They were among several sentences handed down by the court in northern China, where Sanlu is based.
The scandal, in which melamine was added to raw milk to make it appear higher in protein, led to the deaths of six babies and made some 300,000 ill.
It led to product recalls across the globe, and further damaged China's reputation for producing safe and reliable products, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing says.
At home, the scandal left parents terrified and caused outrage across the country, coming only four years after an earlier milk powder scandal which left 13 babies dead, he adds.
Illegal workshop
The most senior figure to be sentenced was Tian Wenhua, who was chairwoman of the Sanlu Group, the largest producer of baby milk powder.
When the scandal broke in September, it emerged that Sanlu had known it was selling toxic milk - and allowed around 900 tonnes of it to leave its dairies.
It was only when its New Zealand partner intervened that production stopped.
Tian Wenhua pleaded guilty to charges of producing and selling fake or substandard produce in December.
The Intermediate People's Court in Shijiazhuang gave her a life sentence and ordered her to pay a fine of 20m yuan ($2.9m).
Earlier the court sentenced cattle farmer Zhang Yujun and milk trader Geng Jinping to death.
Zhang Yujun was accused of running an illegal workshop in Shandong province in eastern China, producing 600 tonnes of the fake protein powder - the largest source of melamine in the country.
Geng Jinping was convicted of producing and selling toxic products to dairy companies from his milk production base.
One other person received a suspended death sentence, two were jailed for life and six - including three former Sanlu executives - were jailed for between five and 15 years for their part in the scandal, Xinhua news agency reports.
Hell ya... kill them all.....
Meanwhile...... back here in the good ol' USA, we hand out $$$,$$$,$$$,$$$ to the same fuckers who ran the country into the ground... so they can ""fix it"....
AK47's are coming out of the closets....soon.
China Knows how to get it Done
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Roostius_Maximus
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i cant even post how i feel about this one
http://www.youtube.com/user/500bigbore
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dannygraves
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http://www.time.com/time/health/article ... 57,00.html
I wondered how Melamine was confused for protein...
When I was a cabinet maker, we used Melamine and Cortron all the time. Never new there was any other use for the stuff.
I wondered how Melamine was confused for protein...
When I was a cabinet maker, we used Melamine and Cortron all the time. Never new there was any other use for the stuff.
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teemtrubble
- Posts: 2269
- Joined: October 11th, 2007, 2:15 pm
- Location: simi valley, ca
Shoot this clown too......
Investors say jailed pilot swiped money for years
By RICK CALLAHAN, Associated Press Writer Rick Callahan, Associated Press Writer 1 hr 29 mins ago
INDIANAPOLIS – An Indiana financial adviser accused of trying to fake his death in a plane crash improperly moved money from accounts, forged signatures on investment documents and charged exorbitant fees for years, investors testified at a hearing Thursday.
An administrative law judge in Indiana heard from investors and their relatives who claim Marcus Schrenker bilked them out of hundreds of thousands of dollars before last week's plane crash in Florida.
While that hearing was going on, Schrenker was in federal court in Pensacola, Fla., where he pleaded not guilty to charges of deliberately crashing his airplane and making a false distress call. Judge Roger Vinson ordered the 38-year-old amateur pilot sent for a psychiatric evaluation after Schrenker's attorney claimed he is not mentally competent for trial.
Schrenker was arrested Jan. 13 at a campground near Tallahassee, Fla., where federal agents say he tried to kill himself after parachuting from his plane in Alabama and driving off on a motorcycle he had stashed nearby. His plane continued on autopilot for 200 miles before crashing in the Florida Panhandle. Authorities say he faced mounting legal problems and his wife had filed for divorce.
In Indiana, the state Department of Insurance has asked Judge Douglas Webber to permanently revoke Schrenker's license, fine him $270,000 and order him to pay $320,000 in restitution. He also faces two felony charges there accusing him of working as an investment adviser without being registered.
Thomas Reese of Atlanta testified that he had invested nearly all of his $1 million life savings from more than 30 years of work at a General Motors Corp. plant in annuities with Schrenker, then later found $61,000 withdrawn without authorization.
"It never did go to me, it went to him, to one of his accounts," Reese, 83, said by phone. He said it took 18 months to get the money back.
Schrenker, who lived in an upscale lakefront home in suburban Indianapolis, is named in more than a half-dozen lawsuits seeking millions of dollars. At least one stemmed from grievances investors brought in 2007 to the Indiana insurance department, which filed a civil complaint in January 2008 accusing Schrenker of closing out their annuities and shifting money into new ones.
The state claims the switches left investors to pay high penalties they hadn't know they'd face while Schrenker earned lucrative commissions.
No attorney or other representative for Schrenker attended Thursday's hearing before state insurance officials.
Webber allowed the hearing to go on anyway, saying Schrenker had tried repeatedly to delay it. He had attended previous hearings in August and September.
"I think it's reasonable to conclude that even if he were not incarcerated, he would not be willing to participate in this hearing," said Webber, who is expected to rule in about a month.
Gena Smith of Buford, Ga., testified that Schrenker took advantage of her father, William Hess, who died in February 2008, by selling him annuity investments he did not fully understand. She said her father had written "not my signature" underneath where his name had apparently been forged on an investment form that is now part of the state's evidence.
"This is absolutely not my father's signature," Smith said.
Webber also heard testimony from Donna Richardson, an assistant vice president of agent contracting and licensing with National Western Life Insurance Co.
Richardson, testifying from her office in Austin, Texas, said the company refunded most of the original investments of people whose National Western accounts Schrenker handled after learning he had falsified information on their annuity applications.
Those refunds, which Richardson estimated totaled between $7 million and $14 million, prompted Creative Marketing International Corp., a National Western affiliate, to sue Schrenker and one of his companies Dec. 22 in federal court in Indianapolis.
That lawsuit alleges that Schrenker owes the company more than $1.4 million in commissions related to National Western Life products.
Investors say jailed pilot swiped money for years
By RICK CALLAHAN, Associated Press Writer Rick Callahan, Associated Press Writer 1 hr 29 mins ago
INDIANAPOLIS – An Indiana financial adviser accused of trying to fake his death in a plane crash improperly moved money from accounts, forged signatures on investment documents and charged exorbitant fees for years, investors testified at a hearing Thursday.
An administrative law judge in Indiana heard from investors and their relatives who claim Marcus Schrenker bilked them out of hundreds of thousands of dollars before last week's plane crash in Florida.
While that hearing was going on, Schrenker was in federal court in Pensacola, Fla., where he pleaded not guilty to charges of deliberately crashing his airplane and making a false distress call. Judge Roger Vinson ordered the 38-year-old amateur pilot sent for a psychiatric evaluation after Schrenker's attorney claimed he is not mentally competent for trial.
Schrenker was arrested Jan. 13 at a campground near Tallahassee, Fla., where federal agents say he tried to kill himself after parachuting from his plane in Alabama and driving off on a motorcycle he had stashed nearby. His plane continued on autopilot for 200 miles before crashing in the Florida Panhandle. Authorities say he faced mounting legal problems and his wife had filed for divorce.
In Indiana, the state Department of Insurance has asked Judge Douglas Webber to permanently revoke Schrenker's license, fine him $270,000 and order him to pay $320,000 in restitution. He also faces two felony charges there accusing him of working as an investment adviser without being registered.
Thomas Reese of Atlanta testified that he had invested nearly all of his $1 million life savings from more than 30 years of work at a General Motors Corp. plant in annuities with Schrenker, then later found $61,000 withdrawn without authorization.
"It never did go to me, it went to him, to one of his accounts," Reese, 83, said by phone. He said it took 18 months to get the money back.
Schrenker, who lived in an upscale lakefront home in suburban Indianapolis, is named in more than a half-dozen lawsuits seeking millions of dollars. At least one stemmed from grievances investors brought in 2007 to the Indiana insurance department, which filed a civil complaint in January 2008 accusing Schrenker of closing out their annuities and shifting money into new ones.
The state claims the switches left investors to pay high penalties they hadn't know they'd face while Schrenker earned lucrative commissions.
No attorney or other representative for Schrenker attended Thursday's hearing before state insurance officials.
Webber allowed the hearing to go on anyway, saying Schrenker had tried repeatedly to delay it. He had attended previous hearings in August and September.
"I think it's reasonable to conclude that even if he were not incarcerated, he would not be willing to participate in this hearing," said Webber, who is expected to rule in about a month.
Gena Smith of Buford, Ga., testified that Schrenker took advantage of her father, William Hess, who died in February 2008, by selling him annuity investments he did not fully understand. She said her father had written "not my signature" underneath where his name had apparently been forged on an investment form that is now part of the state's evidence.
"This is absolutely not my father's signature," Smith said.
Webber also heard testimony from Donna Richardson, an assistant vice president of agent contracting and licensing with National Western Life Insurance Co.
Richardson, testifying from her office in Austin, Texas, said the company refunded most of the original investments of people whose National Western accounts Schrenker handled after learning he had falsified information on their annuity applications.
Those refunds, which Richardson estimated totaled between $7 million and $14 million, prompted Creative Marketing International Corp., a National Western affiliate, to sue Schrenker and one of his companies Dec. 22 in federal court in Indianapolis.
That lawsuit alleges that Schrenker owes the company more than $1.4 million in commissions related to National Western Life products.