Court upholds fraud sentence for former BOC banker

A higher court in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Friday upheld the sentences given to a former Bank of China (BOC) banker and six others for fraud and embezzlement.

Harbin Intermediate People's Court convicted Gao Shan, former head of a BOC sub-branch in the city, of embezzlement of over 800 million yuan (about 129 million U.S. dollars) and sentenced him to 15 years in prison on Sept. 12.

The court said that between 2000 and 2004, Gao collaborated with other suspects to transfer the bank's money to fake or shell companies' accounts controlled by prime suspects Li Dongzhe and Li Donghu.

Li Dongzhe was sentenced to life in prison for fraud, contract swindling, extortion and blackmail. Li Donghu was given 25 years in jail. Four others were also given prison terms.

Gao and another suspect accepted their sentences but the other five including Li Dongzhe and Li Donghu appealed to the higher people's court in the province.

The case was exposed when employees of a highway construction company and a court came to Gao's bank to transfer 320 million yuan from an account and were unsuccessful due to the bank's lack of funds. Gao and his accomplices fled to Canada at the end of 2004 before the case came to light.

Gao was arrested by Canadian police in 2007 and turned himself in to Chinese police in 2012.

The case sent shockwaves through the banking sector, and along with other corruption cases led to a large-scale personnel reshuffle by the China Banking Regulatory Commission in its local branches.