The former head of state-owned China Huarong Asset Management Co Ltd was sentenced to death on Tuesday for bribe taking in one of the harshest punishments for economic crimes in recent years.
Lai Xiaomin, 58, was also found guilty by the Second Intermediate People’s Court of Tianjin of lesser charges including corruption and bigamy.
Life sentences and suspended death sentences commuted to life after two years are frequently handed down in corruption cases, but death sentences without the chance of reprieve have become rare in recent years. Such sentences are automatically appealed to China’s highest court.
Lai was placed under investigation by the ruling Communist Party’s corruption watchdog in 2018 and expelled from the party later the same year. In its ruling, the Tianjin court cited the “especially enormous” size of the bribes Lai accepted, saying they exceeded 600 million yuan ($93 million) in one instance.
In total, it said Lai collected or sought to collect 1.79 billion yuan ($260 million) over a decade in exchange for abusing his position to make investments, offer construction contracts, help with promotions and provide other favours.