Yuan was raised in a peasant family and made a fortune in
Beijing. Upon losing CNY 100 million in
futures trading, he believed that his loss resulted from manipulation of the broker by
Liu Han, a businessman from
Sichuan. He offered a former police officer, Wang Xing, CNY 160,000 to murder Liu. Wang in turn hired a contract killer named Li Haiyang. In February 1997, Li shot at Liu twice in a Sichuan hotel but missed, and was sentenced to life in prison. Wang proceeded to blackmail Yuan, who, with his brother Yuan Baoqi, hired their cousins to murder Wang in 2003. Yuan was found guilty of Wang's murder in January 2005 and was scheduled to die by firing squad on 14 October 2005. However, the day before his execution date, his wife transferred ownership of shares worth CNY 49.5 billion to the government, including shares of an Indonesian oilfield, leading to a stay of Yuan's execution until March 2006. On 17 March 2006, Yuan was executed by
lethal injection in an
execution van in
Liaoyang. His brothers Yuan Baoqi and Yuan Baosen were executed on the same day; his cousin Yuan Baofu received a
suspended death sentence. In 2015, Liu Han was executed for other crimes. ==References==