(Yicai Global) Sept. 12 -- A Beijing court has sentenced Ding Ning to life in prison for crimes including illegal financing. Ding Ning was the chairman of Anhui Yucheng Holdings Group, which operated internet financial platform Ezubao. The court fined Ding Ning, his company and its parent, Yucheng International Holdings Co., USD15.29 million, USD15.29 million and USD275.69 million, respectively.

The two companies, which were not qualified financial institutions, introduced fake financing projects on Ezubao and another app from June 2014 to December 2015 in an illegal attempt to attract huge sums of money from the public, Beijing First Intermediate People's Court said today. The enteprises, Ding Ning and others committed crimes by smuggling precious metals, illegally possessing guns and illegally crossing national borders.

The court sentenced Ding Dian, Ding Ning's brother who was a senior executive at the group, to life in prison and slapped him with a fine of USD10.7 million. The other 24 defendants involved in this case received jail terms of three to 15 years.

The company rolled out Ezubao in July 2014 and it became the target of a criminal investigation in December 2015. After probing, police said in January last year that Ezubao had illegally raised more than USD7.65 billion.

The police made full efforts to recover all the involved assets. So far, they have recovered some of the money, real estate and gold involved, the court said. The process is still underway, and authorities will eventually return recovered assets to victims on a pro rata basis.