A former illegal immigrant to the United States and janitor at Yale University has been jailed for 13 years for conning his way to the top of a Beijing publishing house and embezzling funds.

Shen Zhenlin was convicted at the Haidian People's Court in Beijing of misappropriating 593,430 yuan (74,179 U.S dollars) of public funds during his term at the Beijing Hope Electronics Publishing House.

Shen told the court that he was born to a farming family in Haiyan County, East China's Zhejiang Province, in 1970 and was smuggled into the United States in 1989.

With the help of friends, he found a temporary job as a cleaner on the campus of Yale University. He attended courses in computer sciences at the university in his spare time.

He got to know the president of Beijing Hope Electronics Publishing House, a woman he identified as Qin, through an on-line chatroom in 1999, introducing himself as "having a doctorate in computer science of Yale University".

Qin invited him to return to China and find a job. Shen continued his deception, telling Qin that his parents operated a ship-building business in the U.S., but that he had returned to China after "being moved by her sincerity".

With the help of Qin, who never even checked his passport, Shen was employed at the publishing house in 1999.

Shen edited 98 books on computer sciences by compiling materials mainly downloaded from the Internet. He told Qin the academic papers included in the books were all endorsed and compiled by Yale scholars.

He was promoted to the post of deputy president at the publishing house based on his "achievements" and was put in charge of computing and administration.

It was during his tenure that he misappropriated the money.

Shen's rapid rise in the ranks aroused the suspicion of colleagues who reported him to Beijing judicial departments in May 2002 after they discovered the truth.

Shen left the publishing house a month later, but was arrested in Beijing in January.

Shen said he would appeal the Beijing court's decision.

Source: Xinhua