Shanghai officials linked to pension scandal sentenced

Chinese courts have sentenced six Shanghai officials implicated in a massive pension funds scandal to prison terms ranging from three years to life, according to state media reports.

The sentencings were the latest signal that the Chinese Communist Party is wrapping up a graft investigation that already has resulted in the ouster of Shanghai party secretary Chen Liangyu (陳良宇) -- the highest level party official to be dismissed in a decade.

They also come just weeks ahead of a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress where party leader and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and other top leaders are expected to consolidate their hold on power.

Chen is reportedly in jail awaiting trial on corruption charges, as are a number of other former officials and business executives.

The No. 1 Intermediate People's Court in the northeastern city of Changchun sentenced Zhu Junyi (祝均一), former head of the city's Labor and Social Security Bureau, to 18 years in prison for bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power, Caijing, a financial magazine, reported on its Web site.

Phone calls to the court's news department rang unanswered yesterday morning.

Two former executives received life sentences: Han Guozhang (韓國璋), a former vice president of electric power generator maker Shanghai Electric, and Wu Minglie (吳明烈), former chairman of a state-owned real estate company, Caijing and the Beijing-backed Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao reported at the weekend.

Lu Qiwei (陸祺偉), a deputy to Zhu, got eight years in prison after being convicted of taking 1 million yuan (US$133,000) in bribes, the reports said.

Zhu was accused of abusing his position to make risky investments, turning the city pension fund into an illicit bank that lent more than 7 billion yuan to property developers and other companies, Caijing reported.