Chinese court upholds sentence to 'Sister House'

A west China court on Thursday upheld the sentence of a former Chinese banker, mocked by Chinese netizens as "Sister House", for faking IDs.

Gong Aiai, 49, had been sentenced to three years in prison for forging and trading official documents at her first trial in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on September 29.

The Intermediate People's Court in Yulin City on Thursday upheld the verdict.

The court heard that the former deputy head of the Shenmu County Rural Commercial Bank in Yulin City illegally purchased Beijing hukou (residency) for her daughter and herself at a cost of 300,000 yuan (48,859 U.S. dollars) in 2005, to allow her to buy houses in the capital.

In January, online whistleblowers revealed that Gong had more than 20 properties in Beijing worth an estimated 1 billion yuan under the names Gong Aiai and Gong Xianxia.

According to the police, Gong had four hukou IDs and possessed 44 Beijing properties with total floor space of 10,543 square meters. The total property value amounted to 395 million yuan.