GUANGZHOU, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- A former chief of a Bank of China (BOC) sub-branch was on Wednesday sentenced to life in prison for embezzlement and the misappropriation of public funds.
Xu Guojun, former head of the BOC Kaiping sub-branch in the city of Jiangmen, south China's Guangdong Province, was handed his punishment by the Intermediate People's Court of Jiangmen.
Xu accepted his sentence and said that he would not appeal the result.
In 2001, Xu fled overseas to escape punishment. He was listed as an Interpol Red Notice fugitive in 2002, and was repatriated to China in 2021.
The court found that between 1993 and 2001, Xu took advantage of his positions at the BOC Kaiping sub-branch and conspired with others to embezzle public funds totaling over 900 million yuan (about 127 million U.S. dollars).
Xu and others also misappropriated public funds totaling over 1.4 billion yuan, the court said.
It said that the amount of public funds that Xu had embezzled or misappropriated was particularly large, and his offenses had brought significant damage to the interests of the state and the people.
Xu has been deprived of his political rights for life, and all of his personal property will be confiscated, the court said, noting that his illegal gains will be turned over to the state treasury. ■
