SHANGHAI -- A Chinese court on Sept 2 sentenced nine people to jail terms of up to six years over counterfeiting and manufacturing LEGO toys.

The chief culprit, surnamed Li, was sentenced to six years in prison with a fine of 90 million yuan (about 13.19 million U.S. dollars) for copyright infringement, according to the verdict handed down by the Third Intermediate People's Court of Shanghai.

Eight other defendants were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment from four years and six months to three years and were also fined accordingly.

The criminal gang, busted by Chinese police in April 2019, were found replicating LEGO toys and sold them online and offline under the brand of Lepin, a domestic toymaker.

The Lepin bricks were identified as replicas of authentic LEGO products by the Copyright Protection Center of China.

The investigation showed that the case involved over 330 million yuan of illegal income.