Former president of China Construction Bank fails to lodge appeal

The former president of China Construction Bank (CCB), Zhang Enzhao, has failed to appeal his conviction and 15-year prison sentence early this month for taking bribes.

Zhang was sentenced at the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court on Nov. 3, but has not lodged an appeal with the Beijing Higher People's Court within the legal time limit.

The verdict and sentence of Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court would take effect, an official with the Supreme People's Court confirmed on Wednesday.

The intermediate court found that Zhang took advantage of his position between 2000 and 2004, when he was vice president, then president and finally chairman of China Construction Bank Ltd.

The court heard that he received cash and property bribes valued at more than four million yuan (500,000 U.S. dollars).

The court convicted Zhang of corruption by abusing his office to benefit other people and in return for large amounts of cash and property.

Zhang was told he had received a "lenient sentence" because he made a full confession, even though investigators had no corroborating evidence of the crimes, and because he turned the bribe money over to the state.

Zhang resigned as China Construction Bank chairman in March last year.

The bank was the first of China's "big four" state-owned commercial banks to go public when it listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in October last year.

Zhang pleaded guilty to the charges against him in September on his first appearance in court.

Zhang, 60, a graduate of Fudan University, started working in China's banking sector in 1964 and attained the CCB chairmanship in 2004.

Source: Xinhua