The former chairperson of one of China's biggest government-run asset management companies has been sentenced to death for taking bribes, Bloomberg and other sources report.
The Second Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin found 58-year old Lai Xiaomin, a former banker, guilty of soliciting $276 million in bribes as well as bigamy and corruption in one of China's high-profile corruption cases.
"Lai Xiaomin was lawless and extremely greedy," Reuters quoted the court as saying in a statement. China Huarong Asset Management Co. said its Communist Party committee supports the court's decision.
Lai, a former member of the Communist Party, gave a detailed confession on China state broadcaster CCTV in January last year with a video of a Beijing apartment that he reportedly owns replete with safe boxes and cabinets filled with cash. Footage also showed gold bars and luxury cars that CCTV reported he had taken as bribes.
Lai was also found guilty of embezzling over 25 million yuan (nearly $4 million) in government properties and starting a second family while he was still married to his first wife.
In its ruling, the court said although Lai provided details about wrongdoing by his subordinates, the severity of his bribe taking and "degree of harm" caused to society weren't enough to merit leniency, The Associated Press reported.
The death sentence is unusual for cases of corruption in China, although a former Shanxi province vice mayor was sentenced to death in 2018.
"The serious treatment of Lai Xiaomin reflects the strong determination of the Central Committee with President Xi Jinping as the core to administer the party and its zero tolerance in punishing corruption," Huarong said in a statement.
According to Beijing-based lawyer Mo Shaoping, the amount of corruption is likely the most in recent years. Under the current environment "a death sentence is definitely sending a warning...and shattering the belief that corruption isn't punishable by death," Mo said according to Bloomberg.
