A former head of China Construction Bank was jailed for 15 years today after pleading guilty to taking bribes to arrange loans, his lawyer said.
Zhang Enzhao abruptly resigned in March 2005 as chairman of Construction Bank, which in October last year became the first of China's big four state-owned lenders to sell shares to the public abroad. Its Hong Kong listing raised $9.2 billion.
The court found Zhang guilty of having accepted 4.15 million yuan ($527,000) in bribes in the form of cash, property and valuables to help people obtain loans, his lawyer said.
In court in September, he pleaded guilty but said the amount involved was smaller, the Beijing Newsreported at the time.
The verdict, handed down by the Beijing Intermediate Court, brought to an end the latest in a long string of graft cases that have embroiled Chinese lenders due to the cosy ties that have linked bankers, businessmen and government officials.
The official Xinhua news agency quoted the court as saying the jail term could have been longer had Zhang not confessed some of his "undiscovered" crimes to investigators and the bribe money not been recovered.
Zhang's lawyer said his client would serve his sentence at Qincheng, a jail outside Beijing effectively reserved for political prisoners.
Qincheng once housed the Gang of Four, led by Mao Zedong's wife, Jiang Qing, after they were found guilty of responsibility for deaths and excesses during the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.
Two credit officers from Construction Bank's Hainan branch were sentenced to one year's imprisonment for dereliction of duty, Xinhua reported.