Former senior provincial official sentenced to 16 years for bribery, insider trading

DALIAN -- Bai Xiangqun, former vice chairman of the government of northern China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, was sentenced to 16 years in prison by the Intermediate People's Court of Dalian in Northeast China's Liaoning province Thursday.

Bai was convicted of taking bribes, embezzlement of public funds, inside trading and leaking of insider information.

He was fined 62.5 million yuan (about $8.84 million), and his illegal gains will be confiscated, according to a court statement.

Bai was accused of taking advantage of the various positions he formerly held to help entities and persons in allocating coal resources, contracting construction projects, real estate development and job arrangements.

In return, Bai accepted money and valuables worth of over 85.15 million yuan between 1999 and 2018.

Between 2008 and 2012, Bai illegally take public assets worth of 7.12 million yuan into his own possession, the court said.

In addition, Bai was found to have illegally profited over 17 million yuan from the stock market by obtaining inside information through illicit measures in 2010, 2011 and 2015.

He also leaked the insider information to others, who used his information for stocks trading, illegally gaining a profit of 40.52 million yuan, the court said.

Bai was given a lesser punishment for confessing to criminal acts that were previously unknown to the investigators, expressing remorse and returning most of the illegal gains, the court said.