Former chairman of state-owned bank China Everbright Group jailed for 12 years for corruption

By The Associated Press

FILE - Tang Shuangning, then chairman of China Everbright Group and Everbright Securities Co., talks to the press after the IPO for Everbright Securities at Shanghai Stock Exchange in Shanghai, China on Aug. 18, 2009. (Chinatopix via AP, File)[ASSOCIATED PRESS]

BEIJING (AP) — A former chairman of the state-owned bank China Everbright Group was jailed 12 years for embezzlement and bribery, official broadcaster CCTV said Tuesday.

Tang Shuangning, who had also held senior posts at the People’s Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission, was arrested in January, part of a wider wave of prosecutions of senior officials accused of financial crimes.

A court in the city of Tangshan, about 100 miles (160 kms) east of Beijing, found him guilty of taking advantage of his position at the state-owned bank in “seeking convenience for others” in jobs and loans, in exchange for illegal payments. The court said he had accepted illegal property with a total value of more than 11 million yuan (about $1.5 million).

Tang, who retired in 2017, was expelled from the ruling Communist Party in January. His successor at Everbright, Li Xiaopeng, was also suspected of graft, expelled from the party and removed from public office.

They are among many officials caught up in President Xi Jinping’s decade-long anti-corruption campaign, which critics say is also designed to remove his political rivals.

Other former officials caught up in the crackdown include Liu Liange, a former chairman of the Bank of China; former Chinese central bank senior official Sun Guofeng; former president of state-owned China CITIC Bank Sun Deshun; and Zhang Hongli, a former senior executive of the state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.