Wu Ying

Wu Ying (, born 20 May 1981 ) is an entrepreneur from the city of Dongyang in Zhejiang Province, and formerly the sixth-richest woman in China. She was convicted of financial fraud and initially sentenced to death, but the sentence was overturned by the Supreme Court of China. On 21 May 2012 her sentence was reduced to death with a two-year reprieve, which was commuted to a life sentence in 2014. On 23 March 2018, her life sentence was further reduced to 25 years.

Early life and career The eldest of four sisters, Wu Ying was born in May 1981 to a farmer's family in the village of Tangxia in Dongyang. After graduating from middle school in 1997, she studied accounting at a local vocational school, but dropped out after a year and a half to work at her aunt's beauty salon. and was tried in April 2009 at the Intermediate People's Court in Jinhua, a prefecture-level city that administers Dongyang. She was initially charged with illegal fundraising, with a maximum sentence of 15 years' imprisonment, but the charges were later changed to the more serious crime of financial fraud, which in China was punishable by death. On 11 July 2014, her death sentence was commuted to a life sentence. On 23 March 2018, her life sentence was reduced to 25 years.