China handed a life sentence to a former Bank of China manager who was repatriated from the U.S. two years ago over one of the Asian nation's biggest bank frauds.
Xu Guojun, a former local branch head at Bank of China, was sentenced on Wednesday in a court in the southern province of Guangdong, according to an official notice. He was convicted of embezzlement and misappropriation of over 2.3 billion yuan ($322 million) in funds more than 20 years ago with accomplices.
Xu and two other former bank employees took advantage of loopholes at the lender and made fraudulent loans, according to statements from China's highest court on Wednesday. Xu said he accepted the sentence and would not appeal.
Xu's accomplices were sentenced to 12- and 13-year terms in 2006 and 2021 after being returned to China. The total amount involved in the case was earlier put at $485 million.
The sentencing comes as a rising number of top bankers have been ensnared in China's two-year campaign to root out graft in the finance industry. The campaign has brought down more than 100 officials and executives this year alone.
President Xi Jinping says he's tightening the reins on the sector to install a more "centralized and unified leadership" and crack down on the "hedonistic" lifestyles of bankers. Authorities have also made financial stability a top priority as they strive to revive the economy without stoking unintended risks.
The Bank of China case caused a stir two decades ago due to the large amount of money involved and was widely seen in the Asian nation as a textbook example of corruption in the state banking system. More than 2 billion yuan of stolen money had been recovered, the government said in 2021.
