Ji Jianye stands trial in the Yantai Intermediate People's Court in Shandong Province, April 7, 2015. (Photo/weibo.com)
The former mayor of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 2 million yuan ($323,000) on Tuesday for receiving 11.32 million yuan in bribes over five years.
Ji Jianye, 57, took the bribes between 1999 and 2012 directly or through relatives and friends in exchange for his help obtaining construction project contracts and job transfers, according to the Yantai Intermediate People's Court in Shandong province.
Ji pleaded guilty in court and chose not to appeal.
Ji became acting mayor of Nanjing in 2009 and served as Nanjing mayor since January 2010. In October 2013, he became the first provincial-level official to face an anti-graft investigation in Jiangsu.
His wife and a driver were investigated for participating in many construction projects with Ji's approval and support when he worked in Suzhou, Yangzhou and Nanjing. Additionally, some real estate developers who had close relationships with Ji were investigated on suspicion of offering bribes.
One of Ji's mistresses, Jin Qiufen, former director of Yangzhou's Environmental Protection Bureau, stood trial on Jan 9 on bribery charges. The court has not yet announced a verdict.
Ji had been widely criticized and had remained a controversial official, working from a Nanjing hotel instead of his office. He planned to remove Nanjing's famed parasol trees for subway construction work and launched a project to repair key roads in the city, demolishing several intercity highways without approval from the local people's congress.
But he also was praised for contributing to the economic development in the cities in which he worked.
With the investigation of Yang Weize, former Nanjing Party chief in January, the city became the first provincial capital whose Party chief and mayor were both investigated.
