Nine college graduates from Guangdong Province went on trial on Wednesday for organizing pyramid selling schemes and beating a freshman to death, Guangzhou Daily reported yesterday.
All nine suspects are about 25 years old and ran a pyramid selling scheme named "Xinghua Village" in Dongguan City, which was started by schoolmates in 2006.
A suspect, surnamed Wu, allegedly confessed to the police that people entrapped in the scheme had to live in an apartment, where they were strictly monitored.
Their cell phones were taken and they could only send occasional short messages back home.
In December 2009, the 24-year-old victim surnamed Liu from Hunan Province was also tricked into joining the scheme by one of the suspects, surnamed Mou. However, Liu refused to obey the rules, so the scheme's leader decided to get rid of him.
Wu allegedly confessed that according to their rules, after they decided to get rid of someone, they would force them to pay money before letting them go.
They did the same to Liu, locking him in a room and demanded 3,800 yuan (US$578) for his freedom.
Liu refused and was beaten up by Wu and the other eight suspects. After several hours, Liu gave in and gave them about 2,600 yuan, but he died of his wounds.
The gang put Liu's body into a bag, took a taxi to Guangzhou, and threw the body into the Pearl River.
Liu's body was found at the end of December 2009. All nine suspects were detained by police by June 2010.
By Pan Zheng
