Former Chinese official sentenced to 9 years for graft

A former Chinese official was today sentenced to nine years in prison by a court for taking bribes as part of the country's crackdown on corruption.
He Jiacheng, former vice president ofthe Chinese Academy of Governance, was sentenced to nine years for taking bribes by the Ningbo Municipal Intermediate Court in Zhejiang Province.
Chinese Academy of Governance is a ministerial-level institution directly affiliated with the State Council of the People's Republic of China.
The court also fined him 700,000 yuan and confiscated his illegal gains, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
An investigation found that from 1995 to 2014, the defendant illegally accepted money worth 7.1 million yuan by taking advantage of his various posts to help individuals or companies in Initial public offering (IPOs), real estate projects and other areas.

He was shown leniency as he pleaded guilty, expressed remorse, returned all of his illegal gains and disclosed information about the crimes of others, the report said.
Thousands of officials were punished for corruption in China in the anti-graft campaign initiated by Chinese President Xi Jinping in the last four years.