A Chinese court has sentenced former Nanjing official Yang Youlin to death after finding him guilty of accepting more than 2.214 billion yuan (about $325 million) in bribes over a period spanning three decades.
Yang served in several senior government positions in Nanjing between 1993 and 2023, including Executive Deputy Director of the Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone, Director of the Jiangning District Construction Bureau, and General Manager of the Jiangning Economic and Technological Development Group.
In a judgment delivered on Monday, the court also convicted him of embezzlement, abuse of power, misappropriation of public funds and money laundering.
According to the court, Yang abused his official positions by manipulating engineering contracts, land transfers, business operations and financial transactions in exchange for cash and property valued at more than 2.214 billion yuan, making it one of China’s largest bribery cases.
Investigators also found that between 2014 and 2016, Yang conspired with others to embezzle 12 million yuan in government funds.
The court further ruled that he paid more than 25 million yuan in bribes to other state officials to obtain illegal benefits, diverted 15 million yuan in public funds for private business activities, and caused direct economic losses of 23 million yuan to the state through unauthorised property demolitions and illegal land fee refunds.
In 2023, Yang was also found to have attempted to launder one million yuan in illicit proceeds through a company under his control.
Although the court acknowledged that Yang had provided information that helped uncover other criminal activities, an act that could ordinarily qualify as meritorious service and attract a reduced sentence, it held that the scale and severity of his crimes outweighed any mitigating factors.
The judges cited the enormous amount of bribes involved, the particularly serious nature of the offences, their grave social impact and the significant losses suffered by the state as reasons for rejecting leniency.
Yang pleaded guilty and expressed remorse during public hearings held in March and April.
The court imposed a consolidated death sentence, stripped him of his political rights for life and ordered the confiscation of all his personal assets.
