Zhang Yujun and Geng Jinping, found guilty in the tainted milk scandal that killed six and sickened 54,000 more in China last year, were sentenced to death by the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People’s Court, according to an article on Bloomberg.com. Yujun, a cattle farmer in eastern China, made almost $1 million selling the protein powder laced with melamine, while Jinping was convicted of adding Zhang’s powder to watered-down milk, according to state-run China Daily. Gao Junjie received a death sentence, suspended for two years, for making more than 70 t of melamine-laced powder with his wife. That sentence typically is commuted to life in prison. In addition, Tian Wenhua, former Board Chairwomen and General Manager of Sanlu Group Co. was ordered to pay a fine of 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) and sentenced to life in prison.
In all, 60 people have been arrested and 21 sentenced in the melamine scandal that was exposed in Sept. 2008. Of these, two others have been jailed for life and six, including three former Sanlu executives, were jailed for between five and 15 years. Melamine is an industrial chemical that is normally used in the production of fertilizer and plastic, but it was added to milk to falsely raise its protein levels in tests. Sanlu, which filed for bankruptcy last month, was fined about 50 million yuan ($7.3 million) by the court over its role in supplying contaminated baby formula. Currently, 22 Chinese dairy companies, including Sanlu, China Mengniu Dairy Co., and Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., are being sued by families whose children either died or were sickened after drinking melamine-tainted milk formula.
courtesy: The Weekly - IFT
January 28, 2009
Bloomberg.com article
By Stephanie Wong
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