Woman who was given longest prison sentence in history only served a fraction of it

It's not unusual for prisoners to serve fewer years in jail than what they were sentenced to.

But one woman from Thailand who was handed the longest ever prison sentence ended up only spending a tiny fraction of it in jail.

And there's a very interesting reason why.

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It happened in the 1960s, when Chamoy Thipyaso set up something called a 'chit fund', which is a savings scheme that is often used in India.

In the past, these kinds of funds have been vital in helping finance developments, particularly in the state of Kerala.

However, Thipyaso's fund, which was called the Mae Chamoy Fund, was set up to appear like an oil share, offering those who invested their money high returns.

Because of her connections to the Royal Thai Air Force, the dodgy fund appeared to be legit, with thousands of people signing up to it.

Shockingly, Thipyaso even managed to convince members of the royal household and military figures to invest.

After defrauding over 16,000 people out of up to $301 million, Thipyaso was finally arrested.

In 1989, she was sentenced to a whopping 141,078 years in prison, making it the longest sentence ever of anyone in the world.

But somehow, she served only eight years for her crimes.

This is because, at the time, Thai law only allowed for those convicted of fraud to serve a maximum of 20 years behind bars.

These days, the longest prison sentence in the world belongs to one of the men responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

The tragic attack took place on the morning of 19 April, 1995, when former soldier Timothy McVeigh parked a rented truck in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City and ignited a timed fuse attached to a bomb.

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McVeigh fled the scene in a getaway car and the bomb exploded at precisely 9:02am local time, causing damage to more than 300 buildings and killing 168 people, including 19 children.

The FBI was able to link the van to McVeigh, and learned a friend of his named Terry Nichols had helped him construct the bomb.

Just 90 minutes after the bomb went off, McVeigh was pulled over by a State Trooper for having a missing license plate and was found to be carrying a concealed weapon.

He was arrested, meaning he was already in jail when he was linked to the bombing the following day. Nichols then surrendered to police one day later.

A jury returned a verdict of guilty on all charges, and Nichols was handed a sentence of 160 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.