Beijing: A Chinese-American woman has been sentenced to life in prison for credit fraud of nearly 26 million dollars linked to the Three Gorges dam project, a court official said Wednesday. Li Xiaoyuan was convicted by the Beijing Intermediate People’s Court of falsifying documents and official seals to obtain 14 letters of credit from two Chinese banks, the official told AFP. The official was unable to confirm when Li was sentenced. But he denied a report in Wednesday’s Jinghua Times newspaper that she had already been deported following the conviction. "The court decision means that she has to complete her sentence and then she will be deported," he said. Li had the right to appeal the verdict, the official added. Under normal procedure, life terms in China can lead to parole in 15 years. Also convicted in the case was You Weijian, a manager at the Yangtze Three Gorges Development Company, an affiliate of the China Three Gorges Economic Development Corporation, the Jinghua Times said. You was sentenced to 12 years in prison for helping Li falsify foreign trade contracts, credit application forms and related credit documents, the paper said. Through the letters of credit issued by the Bank of China and the Construction Bank of China, the two received 25.7 million dollars in funds from banks outside of China, it said. Li was the representative of the Dongfang Tiandi Conglomerate in Beijing, the paper said. Officials at the US embassy in Beijing told AFP they were aware of the case, but were unable to immediately provide any details. The Three Gorges Dam, the biggest dam construction project in the world, has already been wracked with corruption, including the embezzlement of funds for the relocation of nearly a million people who must move to make way for the dam. American engineer Fong Fumin was sentenced by a Beijing court last week to five years in prison for stealing state secrets related to business opportunities in China’s energy sector. The US government has urged China to release Fong on medical parole and expel him from the country. Last year, China convicted four Chinese-Americans of spying, but expelled them immediately after their trials.