Update: Dezheng Founder Gets 23 Years in Prison Over Port Forgery Scandal

A court in East China has sentenced the founder of Dezheng Resources Holding Co. Ltd. to 23 years in prison and fined the aluminum company 3.012 billion yuan ($436.57 million) over a case of fraud that lost banks billions, shook international commodity markets and deeply damaged confidence in China’s warehouses four years ago.

The Qingdao Intermediate Court found Chen Jihong and several of his top staff guilty of forging and duplicating receipts for the company’s inventory of aluminum ingots, alumina and copper it had stored at the ports of Qingdao and Penglai. Between 2012 and 2014 Dezheng used the duplicated receipts as collateral for bank loans, securing financing on the back of metals it did not have, according to a report in the official Legal Daily (link in Chinese).