Former CAST official given 15 years for bribery

A court in Nanjing, Jiangsu province sentenced a former senior Party official of the China Association for Science and Technology, or CAST, to 15 years in prison for taking bribes of around 129 million yuan ($20 million).

Chen Gang, 55, a former member of the Leading Party Members Group of the association, was also fined 5 million yuan by the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court and his illegal gains have been confiscated and put into national treasury, the court said on Friday.

The court found Chen abused his former positions as the chief of the urban planning authority of Beijing, vice-mayor of the capital, deputy head of the Office of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project Construction Commission of the State Council, and senior Party official of the CAST from 2003 to 2018, to take bribes from construction projects.

The court has given him a lenient sentence as he has turned himself in, offered evidence in other major cases and turned in all his illegal gains.