Life for Chinese man who conned tycoon convict's wife

BEIJING, Jan 8 (Reuters) A Chinese court has jailed a fraudster for life after he took more than 1 million dollars from the wife of a millionaire but failed to save the tycoon from execution as promised, a newspaper said today.

In a widely publicised case, Yuan Baojing, once worth 3 billion yuan (4 million), was sentenced to death in 2005 for killing a blackmailer who extorted money from him by threatening to expose his bungled attempt to eliminate a former partner.

His wife, Zhuoma, met Wang Fuqiao at a friend's birthday party in February 2004, when Yuan was already under arrest, the Beijing News said.

The 57-year-old jobless man passed himself off as a senior official at the State Council, or cabinet, and convinced Zhuoma that he was close to top Chinese leaders and could orchestrate Yuan's release as long as there was money, the newspaper said.

Zhuoma gave him a total of 8 million yuan over more than a year but her husband was eventually executed by lethal injection, along with his brother and cousin, in the northeastern province of Liaoning last year, the Beijing News said.

''Wang turned a blind eye to the law and ... swindled the victim out of the money by fabricating facts and lying,'' it quoted the Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court as saying. ''The amount was extremely huge so a harsh punishment is needed.'' The court also ordered the confiscation of all of Wang's property, the newspaper said.

Wang, who returned 900,000 yuan and wrote Zhuoma an IOU for 4 million yuan after Yuan's execution, pleaded not guilty during the trial and said he had been acting solely on Zhuoma's behalf throughout, the Beijing News said.

It did not say if Wang would appeal the sentence.

Reuters PDM DB1329