Zheng Weimin, former vice director of Gansu
Provincial Department?of Finance, was sentenced to 16 years in
prison on bribery and embezzlement charges by a local court in
northwest China on Monday morning.
The Intermediate People's Court of Lanzhou
convicted Zheng of embezzling 300,000 yuan (US$37,100), taking
320,000 yuan (US$39,600) in bribes and possessing 1,944,019 yuan
(US$240,600) for which he could not name a legitimate source.
Court sources said Zheng had embezzled the money in
March 2003 from government funds to use for his son's admission to
an art school in Beijing, and he used his position at the
Department of Finance to allocate funds to bribe-givers.
At his home and in banks, investigators found money
and articles valued at a total of 2,985,096 yuan (US$369,500). Of
this, 320,000 yuan was confirmed to be from bribes and 721,077 yuan
from legal sources, leaving 1,944,019 yuan unaccounted for.
On November 28, 2003, Zheng was detained suspected
of corruption, and on December 11 he was charged with the approval
of the Provincial Higher People's Procuratorate.
Zheng made voluntary confessions and reportedly
helped to retrieve all the illicit money.
He will appeal to a higher court against his
sentence, the court said.
(Xinhua News Agency December 6, 2005)