Huang Yantian, former general manager of Guangdong International Trust and Investment Corp (GITIC), which was declared bankrupt in 1999, has been sentenced to14 years behind bars for illegally taking deposits and dereliction of duty.

The ruling was handed down at the first trial held recently by the Intermediate People's Court of Guangzhou City, capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

The defendant didn't appeal to a higher court after the first-instance trial, said court information.

The court verdict says that GITIC, led by Huang, 64 and a native of Boluo County, Guangdong Province, took in 760 million Chinese yuan (about 91.57 million US dollars), 230 million Hong Kong dollars and 15 million US dollars in deposits with promises of higher interest rates from May 1993 to May 1997.

Apart from spending 260 million yuan, 27 million Hong Kong dollars, plus 1.66 million US dollars in paying interests to institutional and individual depositors, GITIC invested the rest of the deposits in lucrative business operations.

Poor management eventually landed GITIC in complete failure and when GITIC declared bankruptcy in 1999, it owed 350 million yuan, 28 million Hong Kong dollars and 1.93 million US dollars to depositors.

The court ruling says that Huang, as the legal person and final decision-maker of GITIC, violated the state financial management regulations by allowing GITIC to take in deposits illegally, which had harmed the state's order for financial management, and thus should bear criminal responsibility for the institutional crime.

Huang was also convicted of dereliction of duty for failing to perform his obligations while in the position of general manager of the state-owned GITIC, which had caused serious losses to the state.

In accordance with the court ruling, Huang was also given a fine of 100,000 yuan.

Source: Xinhua