A former official in China who accepted a $325 million bribe has been sentenced to death.
In addition to bribery, Yang Youlin was also found guilty of embezzlement of state funds, abuse of official authority, money laundering, and other crimes.
The former first deputy executive director of the Nanjing Development Zone Administrative Committee in China's Jiangsu Province, Yang Yulin, has been found guilty of bribery and a series of other crimes and sentenced to death. Xinhua reported this.
According to the verdict of the Changzhou Intermediate People's Court in Jiangsu Province, he will be deprived of political rights for life, and all his personal property will be confiscated.
According to court information, from 1993 to 2023, Yang Yulin held various public positions in Nanjing, using his official authority to provide illegal assistance to organizations and individuals in matters concerning construction contracts, business activities, land allocation, and financing. In return, he illegally received a total of 2.21 billion yuan (approximately 325 million US dollars) in cash and valuables.
The verdict states that, in addition to accepting bribes, the former official was also found guilty of embezzling public funds, offering bribes, illegally appropriating public funds, abusing official power, and money laundering.
Furthermore, he conspired with others to fraudulently obtain public funds, offered bribes to public officials for illegal benefits, used state company funds for others' businesses, and unlawfully carried out land demolition and regional development projects. The court emphasized that these actions led to serious social consequences.
Additionally, Yang caused economic losses to the state by illegally refunding fees for land transfer. It was also found that he disguised the origin of funds acquired through bribes by formalizing them as loans to companies under his control.
Considering the extremely large amount of bribes Yang received, the extreme severity of his crimes, their negative impact on society, and the immense damage caused to the interests of the state and the people, the court sentenced him to death.
It is noted that during the investigation, Yang provided information about crimes committed by others, and this information was confirmed. However, the court did not consider the severity of his crimes to be a sufficient basis for mitigating the sentence.
Open court hearings for this case were held on March 18 and April 28 of this year. During the trial, Yang confessed to his guilt and expressed remorse for his actions.
