Finance boss gets death sentence

THE former head of state-owned China Huarong Asset Management has been sentenced to death for bribe taking in one of the harshest punishments for economic crimes in recent years.

Lai Xiaomin, 58, was also found guilty by a court in the Chinese city 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 automatically go on appeal 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 £68 million in one instance.

In total, the court said Lai collected or sought to collect £203 million over a decade in exchange for making investments, offering construction contracts, helping with promotions and other favours. He was also convicted of embezzling more than £2.8 million in state assets and starting a second family while still married to his first wife.