HANGZHOU - Two brothers and their father were sentenced to death on Monday for cheating 15,000 investors out of over $1.1 billion in east China's Zhejiang province.

Ji Wenhua, president of the Yintai Real Estate and Investment Group, was sentenced to death for the crime of fund-raising fraud, said the Intermediate People's Court in the city of Lishui, where the company was based.

However, his brother, Ji Shengjun, and father, Ji Linqing, could be spared execution as their death penalties have a two-year reprieve.

The family, along with others, had illegally raised over 7.04 billion yuan ($1.12 billion) between 2003 and 2008 before they were taken into police custody in 2008, holding the truth from investors that their company had been losing money for years, according to the court.

A third brother, Ji Yongjun, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The four men also had their political rights deprived for life and personal property confiscated.

The court also sentenced two other people involved in the case to three years in prison each.