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A Chinese court has sentenced a former local official to death for accepting bribes totaling approximately 500 billion won (about $360 million USD).
The scale of the bribery is reported to be the largest ever in a publicly disclosed judicial ruling in China.
According to reports from China's state-run Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television (CCTV) on July 7, the Changzhou Intermediate People's Court in Jiangsu Province found Yang Yulin, the former executive deputy director of the Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee, guilty of bribery, embezzlement, offering bribes, misappropriation of public funds, abuse of power, and money laundering on July 6, sentencing him to death.
The court also ordered the permanent deprivation of his political rights and the confiscation of all his personal assets.
The court determined that between 1993 and 2023, while holding various positions in Nanjing over a 30-year period, Yang illegally accepted money and valuables worth 2.214 billion yuan (approximately 500 billion won) in exchange for favors, including assisting with construction contracts, corporate management, the transfer of land use rights, and corporate financing.
The court further stated that Yang, along with accomplices, misappropriated financial funds, diverted state-owned enterprise funds, and illegally pushed forward land demolition and development projects, causing severe social harm.
While the court acknowledged that Yang had performed meritorious service by reporting other crimes, it ruled that the facts, nature, and social harm of his bribery offenses were extremely grave, making it insufficient to grant him a lenient sentence.
CCTV reported that Yang admitted to the charges and expressed remorse during public trials held in March and April.
The amount he embezzled is known to be the largest single bribery case in China's publicly disclosed judicial rulings.
The previous record was held by Lai Xiaomin, the former chairman of China Huarong Asset Management, a state-owned bad debt management company, who accepted 1.788 billion yuan (approximately 400 billion won).
Lai Xiaomin was executed in 2021.
Regarding this ruling, the Associated Press noted that it is "part of President Xi Jinping's long-running anti-corruption campaign," while the South China Morning Post (SCMP) assessed that "China has handed down an unusually harsh death sentence for a white-collar crime."
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
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