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Chinese Wang Sentenced to Death in Ant Scam

Mephisto

Philosopher
Mephisto
Joined
Apr 10, 2005
Messages
6,064
I wonder how often corporate scandals like Enron would happen if we adopted Chinese laws?

China death sentence for ant scam

POSTED: 7:23 a.m. EST, February 16, 2007

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- A Chinese man has been sentenced to death for conning people out of 3 billion yuan ($387 million) in a giant scam to breed ants, local media said on Thursday.

Wang Zhendong, from the northeastern province of Liaoning, fabricated a business purported to be making wine, tea and medical elixirs using mature ants, the Beijing News said.

In parts of China, black ants are sold by the bagful to be steeped in tea or soaked in liquor as a natural remedy for ailments such as arthritis.

Wang sold packages of ants to the investors for up to as much as 10,000 yuan ($1,290) when they were only worth 200 yuan, China Central Television reported

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/02/15/china.ants.death.reut/index.html
 
This is already being discussed here; but I'll add a little more information to clarify the situation described in the article, also:
As the article states, pyramid schemes are common in China these days. But what it doesn't mention is that they typically prey on those who are already living in poverty.

The typical method is to go into poor, undeveloped areas, and present local peasants with 'too good to be true' scheme..."Just invest in this product, and you'll be come rich, rich, rich!". US$1300 would be six months to a year's income for these peasants. Frequently, they not only put every cent of their own meager savings into it, but borrow from family and friends also.

For those not familiar with China, where 60% of the population still lives in poverty, it is hard to understand the impact this has on those peoples' lives. The maggots who prey on them are below contempt, and while I don't support the death penalty, I also don't feel much sympathy at all for the people doing things like this.

Eight years ago, I had a student in university who had to quit school because her parents had been scammed in a similar way. She was from a remote village in Sichuan province, and her family had to scrape together every cent they had just to be able to support her studies. They were duped by a con man who presented them with what seemed like a great investment opportunity, and borrowed money from others in order to cover the cost. When they discovered they'd been cheated, they not only were left without any money to support their daughter, but with significant debts they had to repay to others. The father committed suicide two years later, the daughter never had the chance to return to university.

The way the article is written may make it sound frivolous or unimportant -- "Executed for Selling Ant Farms" -- but the truth is that people like this destroy more lives than do some murderers. I have no problem with harsh sentences for such people (if they'd just stop executing everyone).
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Uncle Milton has been selling ant farms and ants for 50 years ....

www.unclemilton.com/products/


And if its ant tea your after its likely that formic acid is the active ingredient. You can buy formic acid , even certified Kosher (I kid you not) from Sigma-Aldrich at $34.00 for 1 kilogram. I wonder how many ants it takes to make up a kilo of formic acid?
 
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SteveGrenard said:
Uncle Milton has been selling ant farms and ants for 50 years ....

www.unclemilton.com/products/


And if its ant tea your after its likely that formic acid is the active ingredient. You can buy formic acid , even certified Kosher (I kid you not) from Sigma-Aldrich at $34.00 for 1 kilogram. I wonder how many ants it takes to make up a kilo of formic acid?
Click to expand...

Wow! That's really interesting. What are the alleged medical benefits of formic acid?
 
Mephisto said:
Wow! That's really interesting. What are the alleged medical benefits of formic acid?
Click to expand...

I doubt it is VERY interesting and there is probably no good reason for anyone to seriously consider formic acid as a treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine has many odd substances used as teas or elixirs to treat this and that, not much of which has any acceptable controlled studies to back up the claims. Raising ants to make ant tea (= auntie) in China probably sounded like a good idea to this scammer who made a lot of money on it until he was busted. A death sentence sounds a little much. I guess the muslims and their sharia are not the only one to put people to death for crimes that do not involve taking another's life.

I was surprised to see it in the Sigma Aldrich catalogue available certified Kosher as well as non-Kosher variants. Very weird.

Here is a review article found in MedLine from a German medical journal about those alleged benefits using dilute formic acid by injection. Its probably not much of a leap to people in China and elsewhere who believe it will benefit them as a tea as well:

: Med Ges Gesch. 2001;20:197-211. Links
[Parenteral administration of formic acid in alternative medicine]
[Article in German]
· Helmstadter A.
Treatment of rheumatic and other diseases through immersion in an anthill is reported in German folk medicine. In the first half of the twentieth century, the physicians Eduard and Egon Krull (1842-1914 and 1879-1936, respectively) as well as Albrecht Reuter (1863-1937) recommended injections of diluted formic acid to treat tuberculosis, gout, arthritis, renal disorders and other complaints. Between 1930 and 1960, more than 15 different commercial preparations were marketed, and Egon Krull invented a drug series called "Myrmekan". Formic acid inhalations were recommended by Sigmund von Kapff (1864-1946) at a time when the acid was rarely used in homeopathy. In the 1950s, the injection of formic acid was regarded as one of the most important procedures in alternative medicine.
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From MedLine.
 
SteveGrenard said:
A death sentence sounds a little much. I guess the muslims and their sharia are not the only one to put people to death for crimes that do not involve taking another's life.
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Just wanted to make a quick comment here -- yes, I agree that the death penalty is rather extreme, but comparing it to the sharia or other extreme Muslim practices is, in my opinion, an unfair comparison.

Let us assume for the sake of argument that we regard capital punishment in and of itself as an acceptable penalty for certain crimes (I don't, but this is not a debate about that). In countries like the U.S., capital punishment is reserved for crimes where one person deliberately took another person's life; and can be used under military law for acts of treason, also.

In China, the definition is somewhat broader. Instead of just "deliberately taking another's life", capital punishment can be applied to those whose deliberate actions lead to the death of others, whether that death was intentional or not. So, in this case, the man scammed peasants out of their life savings; as a result (presumably, it is not mentioned in this article one way or the other) some people committed suicide, or died for other reasons (lack of funds for medical care, etc.). He is then held responsible for their deaths, and therefore receives the death sentence himself. In regards to "treason", China has a significantly broader definition of what constitutes "treason", or "crimes against the state".

I'm not saying any of this to claim that these punishments are acceptable (I am personally opposed to capital punishment for any crime), but to give more understanding of the context and background.

A number of government corruptions scandals have also led to death sentences; a few years ago, severe flooding in southern China led to thousands of deaths. It was later found that some gov't officials had taken funds intended for rescue and relief efforts, and used them for their own purposes. They were subsequently held accountable for the people who died because of their greed, and received death sentences.
 
SteveGrenard said:
I doubt it is VERY interesting and there is probably no good reason for anyone to seriously consider formic acid as a treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine has many odd substances used as teas or elixirs to treat this and that, not much of which has any acceptable controlled studies to back up the claims. Raising ants to make ant tea (= auntie) in China probably sounded like a good idea to this scammer who made a lot of money on it until he was busted. A death sentence sounds a little much. I guess the muslims and their sharia are not the only one to put people to death for crimes that do not involve taking another's life.

I was surprised to see it in the Sigma Aldrich catalogue available certified Kosher as well as non-Kosher variants. Very weird.

Here is a review article found in MedLine from a German medical journal about those alleged benefits using dilute formic acid by injection. Its probably not much of a leap to people in China and elsewhere who believe it will benefit them as a tea as well:



From MedLine.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, Steve. Ant-tea sound a little less invasion than formic acid injections and if it works (whether by placebo effect or not) for the patient, I suppose it's worthwhile (though not worth the money this scammer made).

I'm really wondering about what constitutes the Kosher variety of ant, though - ants that have never eaten pork, ants killed according to tradition? ;)
 
Wolfman said:
A number of government corruptions scandals have also led to death sentences; a few years ago, severe flooding in southern China led to thousands of deaths. It was later found that some gov't officials had taken funds intended for rescue and relief efforts, and used them for their own purposes. They were subsequently held accountable for the people who died because of their greed, and received death sentences.
Click to expand...

I've got mixed feelings about the death penalty when it's applied so broadly (I do support the death penalty in the case of violent crime causing the death of another). It would certainly make government engineers and contractors a lot more careful and people would definitely be less willing to accept a position like head of FEMA as a pay-off for political support.

BTW, my wife and son will be visiting China this upcoming month. It's my wife's second visit and my son's first. We're all heavily immersed in the Chinese culture and I'm hoping they'll bring back many interesting stories and photographs. :)
 
Mephisto said:
Thanks for that, Steve. Ant-tea sound a little less invasion than formic acid injections and if it works (whether by placebo effect or not) for the patient, I suppose it's worthwhile (though not worth the money this scammer made).

I'm really wondering about what constitutes the Kosher variety of ant, though - ants that have never eaten pork, ants killed according to tradition? ;)
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I researched a little bit and found that formic acid is used as its sodium salt as a food additive which then could account for it being made available as certifiably kosher:

Sodium Formate is an indirect food additive. The white, crystalline powder has a slight odor of formic acid. It is the sodium salt of formic acid. ...
www.eafus.com/newindex.asp?message=alphaSearch&index=S
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I doubt also that the formic acid used either medicinally or as a food additive or for other industrial purposes is derived from ants as the compound can be synthesized. It is identical chemically to the stuff found in the saliva of ants and is responsible for the painful sting when stung by these bugs.
 
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Thanks again, Steve

It took me awhile to get down to #82 (interesting stuff), but I made it. I wonder why anyone would bother with the ants if it can be synthesized?

Maybe it's easier to scam people from the "ant angle."
 
Mephisto said:
BTW, my wife and son will be visiting China this upcoming month. It's my wife's second visit and my son's first. We're all heavily immersed in the Chinese culture and I'm hoping they'll bring back many interesting stories and photographs. :)
Click to expand...

Then they may be interested in traditional Chinese medicine. Here are some efforts to regularize and provide controlled studies on the myriad herbs, decoctions (e.g. drinking fresh snake's blood) and other techniques that TCM encompasses:

www.cancersupportivecare.com/chinesreference.html

www.jtcm.com/


...although I would be very cautious about partaking of any of this. There are too many unknowns and some of it, besides being useless, may be dangerous.
 
SteveGrenard said:
Then they may be interested in traditional Chinese medicine. Here are some efforts to regularize and provide controlled studies on the myriad herbs, decoctions (e.g. drinking fresh snake's blood) and other techniques that TCM encompasses:

www.cancersupportivecare.com/chinesreference.html
Click to expand...

Thanks again, my wife will definitely be interested in this link; she was an oncology nurse for 12 years (she's currently a critical-care nurse). :)
 
Chinese Wang Sentenced to Death in Ant Scam


Do you know what the rest of him was sentenced to?
 
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