SOE boss sentenced to death for graft

The former chairman of a State-owned food enterprise was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for a massive graft case involving more than 370 million yuan ($58.5 million).

Ying Guoquan, who had been found guilty of graft, embezzlement, illegal distribution of State assets and taking bribes, was sentenced by a court in Zhejiang province on Tuesday.

A death sentence with a two-year reprieve is usually reduced to life in prison if the convict behaves well when serving the term.

Another 15 former senior executives of the enterprise, Wenzhou Cailanzi Group, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to 13 years.

"The corruption case involving the group is the most serious of its kind in the province, and many people involved were county-level officials," said Dong Zhongbo, a publicity officer at the Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court.

The group, founded in 1998, is Wenzhou's largest enterprise for food production and processing, supplying 99 percent of the pork and 98 percent of the vegetables in the city.

It is the only manufacturer of soybean products in Wenzhou, according to the group's website.

Ying, 58, established another company named Wenzhou Cailanzi Development Co in 2003 with 80 percent of the shares owned by individuals. Ying's son Ying Feihang was a large shareholder.

The court heard that Yang used the new company to misappropriate State assets and illegally transferred State assets to the company, which was under his control.

Ying was also convicted of illegal distribution of State assets because he made false reports about the number of workers at the group and the total wages during 1998 and 2007.

Most of the defrauded money, nearly 12 million yuan, was distributed to senior executives.

The son, Ying Feihang, who was executive deputy general manager of Wenzhou Cailanzi Development Co, was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of embezzlement.

The investigation into Ying and the other executives was opened at the end of 2010 when authorities scrutinized the operation and management of the group, a worker at the group told China Daily over the phone on Tuesday. He declined to give his name.

The case is one of a string of corruption cases in which senior executives in State-owned enterprises were prosecuted in recent years.

Shen Wei, an accountant at Wenzhou Longfa Transport Co, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in November after being found to have embezzled public funds of up to 13 million yuan during two years of employment.

Wang Guanchao, former board chairman of Beijing Sanjiu Automotive Industrial Co, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in July. He was convicted of embezzling more than 26 million yuan in State assets, and misappropriating 4 million yuan for his personal business.