Three men were sentenced to life in prison for theft of refined oil worth 470 million yuan ($71 million), the largest case of theft in terms of value since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

The Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court found that the three men had built an oil collection facility on rented property in a Beijing district in 2003, including underground storage tanks beneath two garages. They later tapped into a pipeline belonging to Sinopec's Beijing Yanshan Co and sold the oil, the court said. The thefts occurred from October 2009 to September 2012.

Yanshan found that oil was missing in 2012 and reported the matter to the police, who later found the storage facility connected to the company's line by three illicit pipes.