Former Bank of China chairman sentenced to death on corruption charges

The former chairman of the Bank of China, Liu Liange, was on Tuesday sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for corruption and illegal issuance of loans.

He was found to have accepted bribes worth over 121 million yuan ( $16.8 million), a court in Jinan city in China's eastern Shandong Province said in its verdict.

Liu was deprived of political rights for life, all of his personal property will be confiscated, and all his illegal gains must be recovered and turned over to the state treasury, the court sentence read, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The court found that Liu had taken advantage of his various positions at the Export-Import Bank of China and Bank of China, respectively, to assist others in matters such as loan financing, project cooperation and personnel arrangements -- while illegally accepting bribes in return.

Moreover, he was found to have knowingly facilitated the issuance of loans totalling more than 3.32 billion yuan to unqualified companies in violation of legal rules, resulting in a principal loss of over 190.7 million yuan (about $ 27 million), the court said.

Liu was the second prominent Chinese banker to have been punished for corruption.

On November 20, China's ruling Communist Party expelled Lou Wenlong, a former vice president of the Agricultural Bank of China, from the party for corruption.

Lou was found to have deliberately resisted the investigation of his case and violated the Party's frugality code by attending banquets that were paid for using public funds or that may influence the fair execution of official duties, the statement said.

Also on Tuesday, a public prosecution was initiated against Wang Yixin, former vice governor of Heilongjiang Province in northeast China, for allegedly accepting bribes.

The Heze Municipal People's Procuratorate in China's eastern Shandong Province filed the case with the city's intermediate court following an investigation by the National Commission of Supervision.

Prosecutors allege that Wang abused his positions in Hainan and Shanxi provinces to secure benefits for others in exchange for bribes described as "extremely large," Xinhua reported.

Since he came to power in 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping has carried out a massive anti-corruption campaign in which over a million officials, including two former Defence Ministers and dozens of top military officers, were punished.