Corporate Crime: Former Bank Of China president given suspended death sentence

The People's Daily has reported that former Bank Of China president, Liu Jinbao, was sentenced to death with two years suspension after being convicted of embezzlement and receiving bribes.

Along with Liu, Zhu Chi and Ding Yansheng, former vice presidents of BOC Hong Kong, were sentenced to 13 years in prison each with a fine of two million yuan (around US$247,000).

On May 28th 2003, only a day before its shareholders' meeting, the Bank of China in Hong Kong, a subsidiary of one of China's four huge and troubled state banks, announced that its chief executive, Liu Jinbao, had resigned and moved to Beijing as part of a 'routine transfer'.

On June 10th the bank formally admitted that Liu had been detained in Beijing, and was under investigation for corrupt lending to a Shanghai property tycoon, Zhou Zhengyi.

Suspended death sentences in China are usually commuted to life in prison.