Bank of China (BOC) officials are investigating the alleged theft of 2.6 million yuan (US$332,000) in cash by a branch manager from the vault of his own bank.

Xiao Kui, a manager at BOC's Yicheng City subbranch in Central China's Hubei Province, allegedly walked out of his bank with the cash stuffed in a large bag Nov. 26, according to media reports. The theft was not uncovered until a week later.

The manager had previously applied for annual leave and the robbery was not discovered until Sunday night, when he failed to show up at work to open the safe in preparation for business Monday.

When employees finally managed to open the safe they found the money was missing.

In two separate cases reported Wednesday, a land administration official in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, and a BOC official in Hainan were each sentenced to five years in prison for accepting bribes.

Dong Jili was sentenced for taking "massive bribes" from a real estate developer in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan, in return for approving land sales, and Tang Xiaoping was convicted of taking a 100,000-yuan bribe in return for approving a loan to a real estate company.