Death for an ant-selling pyramid scheme. Only in China:

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese man has been sentenced to death for conning people out of 3 billion yuan ($387 million) in a giant scam to breed ants, local media said on Thursday.

Wang Zhendong, from the northeastern province of Liaoning, fabricated a business purported to be making wine, tea and medical elixirs using mature ants, the Beijing News said.

In parts of China, black ants are sold by the bagful to be steeped in tea or soaked in liquor as a natural remedy for ailments such as arthritis.

Wang sold packages of ants to the investors for up to as much as 10,000 yuan ($1,290) when they were only worth 200 yuan, China Central Television reported.

Personally, I think if you're willing to pay 10 large in yuan for a packet of ants you pretty much deserve what you get. And who decides that a given packet of ants is actually "worth 200 yuan", as  opposed to, say, nothing? Something to contemplate over your next steaming cup of ant tea. Perhaps, in its quest to position itself as a more Chinese entitity deserving of a spot of prime real estate in the Forbidden City, Starbucks should replace coffee beans with ants and see what comes out of the Gaggia. Gimme a caramel ant frappucino please, hold the whipped cream. It's antastic.


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