Three Death Sentences in Chinese Milk Scandal

[depakid]

Source: NY Times

A group of high-ranking dairy company executives and middlemen were sentenced by a Chinese court on Thursday to long jail terms, life in prison and, for three individuals, the death penalty for endangering public safety last year by selling and producing tainted milk products, according to the state-run news media.

The court said members of the group had intentionally produced and sold fake or substandard dairy products laced with a toxic chemical called melamine, which the government says sickened about 300,000 children and caused the death of at least six in one of the worst food safety scandals in China in decades.

The harshest sentences were given to Zhang Yujun, a dairy middleman who the government called one of the “principal criminals” in the scandal. He was sentenced to death after being convicted of selling 600 tons of melamine-tainted “protein powder” to dairy companies. Another dairy producer, Geng Jinpin, was also sentenced to death. A third man received the death penalty with a two-year reprieve, which means he could be spared execution.

Tian Wenhua, the 66-year-old former chairwoman of the Sanlu Group, one of China’s biggest dairy companies, was sentenced to life in prison for her failure to stop producing and selling the tainted goods even after her company learned that the products were flawed. She was the highest-ranking corporate executive brought to trial last year. She pleaded guilty to the charge of failing to act properly in the case. She was also fined about $3 million.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/world/asia/23milk.html?hp

[notadmblnd]

1. It doesn't appear that these death sentences ae detering these

Chinese executives.

[Suji to Seoul]

2. Hu Jintao = asshole fascist capitalist

What a fucking idiot. And people here in Seoul wonder why I have no interest in visiting China.

[Auggie]

3. "The ones who should take the responsibility are the government...

like the quality supervision bureau." -- Liu Donglin, 28, who says his 21-month old son suffered from kidney stones after drinking tainted milk powder.

Not saying the execs should get off, but there appears to be more to the story here.

[krkaufman]

4. Gotta wonder if Bernie Madoff would have been quite as bold ...

... had he feared something more than the slap on the wrist that is typically meted-out to our white collar criminals.