The court ruled that both parties were guilty of contract fraud and sentenced them accordingly.
In court, the two parties tried to shift the blame onto each other. Zou claimed it was Du's idea to establish the company and that Du was in charge of operations. However, Du stated that the idea originally came from Zou. The court found that both parties were co-conspirators and sentenced Zou for contract fraud with a prison term of six and a half years, a fine of 300,000 yuan, and an order to compensate the victimized company over 280,000 yuan for their losses. Du's case is being handled separately.
At the time of the incident, the cement company had already supplied 2,094 tons of cement valued at over 520,000 yuan. Due to the lack of payment from the other party, the cement company reported the issue to the police in November of the same year.
On August 29, 2005, Zou signed a formal cement sales contract on behalf of the company with a cement manufacturer. The agreement stipulated the supply of 5,000 tons of ordinary cement and 200 tons of composite cement. To gain the trust of the other party, Zou’s company made partial payments three times totaling 68,900 yuan.
Zou is 36 years old and has previously been subjected to labor re-education for drug use. Du is Zou's boyfriend and is wanted online as a fugitive. In June 2005, Zou and Du discussed forming a company to make some money. Zou mentioned that since Du was a fugitive, he couldn't register the company and thus used Zou's name instead. They spent 10,000 yuan to obtain a business license and established a trading company, with Zou serving as the legal representative.
According to reports (by journalist Lu Yonggang), Zou and Du, who are in a romantic relationship, founded a company in 2005. They signed a consignment contract with a cement company, partially fulfilling the contract to gain the trust of the victimized entity, then defrauded them of over 520,000 yuan worth of cement, which they sold at a lower price to extract over 270,000 yuan in cash. Yesterday, it was learned from the Nan'an District Court that apart from the already paid 60,000 yuan and the uncollected goods amounting to over 170,000 yuan, Zou and others defrauded the victimized entity of over 280,000 yuan in goods, constituting the crime of contract fraud.