"The chairman of Mr [吴 植辉 Matthew] Ng’s company et-China, Zheng Hong, was sentenced to 16 years jail and chief financial officer Kitty Yang was given 3.5 years, all on related embezzlement and corporate charges")
"Speaking from Guangzhou yesterday Mr Ng’s wife, Ms [Niki] Chow, said she had been shocked when the judge started reading an hour-long verdict without warning, moments after calling for a recess in proceedings. * * * The verdict was handed down without notice in the absence of Mr Ng’s star lead lawyer Chen Youxi. The Australian Consul General and Australian journalists were also absent, as [Chinese] authorities had told lawyers and the Australian Government that yesterday’s hearing were merely procedural.
My comment: The report states, "Ms Zheng's wife said her husband may have well as been sentenced to death."
Of course, there are typos here. The sentence should be "MR [Hong] Zheng's wife said her husband may AS WELL have been sentenced to death."
"May as well"--because Mr Zheng is old and may die in prison, or something like that.