Newspaper boss jailed for million-yuan con

A senior manager of Beijing's only free subway newspaper was sentenced for embezzlement on Monday in one of the largest corruption scandals in Beijing's newspaper market.

Zhao Wenyan, 46, the former deputy general manager of the State-controlled Beijing All Media and Culture Group and the executive vice-president of the Beijing Daily Messenger, was convicted of embezzling almost 1.44 million yuan by using exaggerated invoices. She was sentenced to 12 years in jail at the Beijing No 2 Intermediate Court, the Beijing Times reported.

Zhao's family gave 1.25 million yuan to the court to cover most of the embezzlement, and 300,000 yuan was seized from her bank accounts. The return of the money was believed to account for the court's lenient sentence.