A Chinese man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined four million yuan (around 582,000 U.S. dollars) by a court in the city of Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, for malicious fees charged to phone users through an app.
This is the first such case in China where the suspect is charged with larceny, reported Guangzhou Daily.
The man, identified by his surname Ren, was among a group of people who founded a company in 2010 and designed an app that automatically subscribes text messages with charges, and makes Interactive Voice Response (IVR) calls after being downloaded. The app can also shield the text messages sent by telecom carriers, making the malicious charges unknown to users until it is time to pay.
Ren also colluded with some phone makers and downloaded the application directly into new phones.
Around six million phone users were unknowingly charged by the app, and Ren's company illegally made more than 67 million yuan between November 2010 and July 2012, according to statistics provided by the prosecutors.
The court in Shenzhen said that Ren's behaviour violated the criminal law and should be punished heavily as the amount of money involved in the case was huge.
Fifteen of Ren's accomplices were fined and given prison terms of at least 10 years.
Ren and his accomplices have reportedly announced that they will appeal the court's decision.
The Guangzhou Daily report said that the case could offer guidance for other courts in China in dealing with similar cases in the future.
