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 (
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 (
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 (
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.
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