Beijing, May 16 (IANS): A 39-year-old businesswoman has been sentenced to death by a court in China for "illegal fund-raising".

The court in Wenzhou in east Zhejiang province convicted Lin Haiyan, former general manager of investment consultancy Wenzhou Xinfu, of illegally raising 640 million yuan (about $103 million) from others, Xinhua reported.

Lin began to invest in the futures market with the money she raised from others in 2007.

She accrued huge losses and was unable to return 428 million yuan to the lenders.

The court also ordered her to return the money to the victims.

In a previous illegal fund-raising case in Zhejiang, businesswoman Wu Ying was convicted of cheating investors of 380 million yuan from May 2005 to January 2007 in private lending scams.

She was initially sentenced to death in 2009. After her case sparked a heated debate over the country's fund-raising system, her sentence was reduced to death with a two-year reprieve following a retrial in May 2012.