Shanghai Secondary People's Court has sentenced Ding Ning and Hu Tao, two employees of Shanghai Telecom, to prison terms for corporate embezzlement.

Starting in March 2005, Hu Tao canvassed 729 ADSL users through various means and charged them a total of RMB767,000 by offering them a lower fee for the users' current services. During that period, Ding Ning then entered the company's ADSL system and changed the company's client data to make the company believe that these clients have already paid the higher fee. Investigators found that the two had acquired RMB640,000 by these illegal means.

The court said the two took advantage of their official duties to steal the company's assets. Ding Ning and Hu Tao received sentences of three years and three and a half years, respectively.