Two sisters in northwest China's Shaanxi Province have been sentenced to life imprisonment for a fund scam valued at 360 million yuan (58 million US dollars).

They were also fined half a million yuan.

Xi'an Intermediate People's Court convicted the sisters, Diao Jizhen and Diao Jihua, of illegally raising funds from more than 4,000 people between 2009 and 2011, ostensibly to fund college programs.

The sisters were legal representative and president of a high-tech vocational institute in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi. The school used the funds to pay high interest of loans and bonuses to employees. Only a small percentage of the funds was used for college programs.

Fourteen others received sentences of between one and nine years and fines.