Former head of China's SOE sentenced to 19-year in prison on bribery charges

The former boss of state-owned Huatian Group in central China's Hunan Province has been convicted of bribery and embezzlement and sentenced to 19-years in prison, a court official said Wednesday.

Since 1998, Zhu Jinwu, 53, had been board chairman of the group which has 19 holding enterprises with an operating capital totaling 3.4 billion yuan (about 419 million US dollars).

The People's Court of Furong District in Changsha, the provincial capital, issued the verdict after convicting Zhu of taking more than 930,000 yuan (about 114,600 US dollars) in bribes and embezzling 7 million yuan (some 860,000 US dollars) in government funds for his own speculation on stocks.

Before the court gives its verdict, the accused returned all the illicit money when delivering himself to the police, said court sources.

Source: Xinhua