China Jails Four In Counterfeit Cash Crackdown

Together they made strips that `could be used to print fake money with a total face value of 174 million yuan`, said Xinhua.

Chinese courts have sentenced four men to up to 12 years in jail for spending or helping to make fake 100 yuan notes that have alarmed consumers looking to splurge ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday next week.

Li Jiahao, 45, faces a dozen years in prison after a court found him guilty of "initiating and investing in making fake money safety strips" -- the lines embedded in banknotes that are supposed to show their authenticity -- the official Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

Li's two accomplices received sentences of 10 and 2 years respectively in the verdict handed down in far southern Guangong province last week, the report said.

Together they made strips that "could be used to print fake money with a total face value of 174 million yuan" ($25 million), said Xinhua.

The report did not say when or for how long the three men made counterfeit money strips. But the apparently swift punishment comes after China's central bank warned consumers this month to be wary of fakes, after local media said high-quality counterfeit banknotes had spread to 14 provinces.

In recent years, an issue of newly minted notes has decreased the incidence of fake bills in China which was once awash with counterfeit notes. But most shopkeepers keep cash-detectors, and the ritual of stroking a note and holding it up to the light remains common among local consumers.

Xinhua also reported that a migrant worker in the country's southwest was sentenced to three months in jail for using fake money.

The report said that the worker, Zou Hongping, bought 70 counterfeit 100 yuan notes for 15 yuan each in March last year.