When Xu discovered the fraud, she went to the police. They detained Wang in May and set bail for his wife, who was nursing.

Police said the couple never opened an account for Xu in overseas markets, and all the transaction records were falsified. The Jing'an court sentenced Wang to five years in prison and gave his wife probation.

A woman who was a victim of Wang's fraud later worked with him, the court said. The 24-year-old woman, identified as Yang, helped Wang coax people, many of whom paid the woman to invest in the stock markets, into the gold speculation scheme.

Modeling her scheme on Wang's approach, Yang installed fictitious software for her clients and shared the profits from the scam with Wang.

In July, Yang was caught at her home in Shanghai. She pleaded guilty to her crimes and returned all the money with the help of her family. She was sentenced to two years in prison with a two-year reprieve.

A third criminal, the court said, is a graduate of the Beijing-based China Management Software Institute identified as Huang. He had planned to pursue his career in Shanghai but ended up in prison for three and a half years with a fine of 103,000 yuan for his illegal activities.

Without approval from Shenzhen financial regulators, Huang made an agreement with a financial firm in Shenzhen in early 2010. Under the name of a company registered in Hong Kong, Huang illegally solicited gold investors for the Shenzhen company and earned commissions.

By May 2012, he had about a dozen clients from Shanghai and Chongqing and had collected more than 1 million yuan in cash deposits.

wangzhenghua@chinadaily.com.cn