Chinese Ex-City Official Sentenced to Death Over $325m Bribery Scandal

A court in China has sentenced former Nanjing city official Yang Youlin to death after finding him guilty of accepting more than 2.2 billion yuan (about $325 million) in bribes over a 30-year period.

According to BBC, the verdict, delivered on Monday, also found Yang guilty of embezzlement, abuse of power, misappropriation of public funds and money laundering, according to Chinese authorities.

Yang held several senior 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.

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The court ruled that he exploited his official positions to influence engineering projects, business activities, land transactions and financial dealings in exchange for money and assets valued at more than 2.214 billion yuan, making the case one of the largest bribery scandals in the country.

Investigators also found that Yang conspired with others to embezzle 12 million yuan in public funds between 2014 and 2016.

In addition, the court said he paid more than 25 million yuan in bribes to other government officials to obtain illegal benefits, diverted 15 million yuan in public funds to private business ventures, and caused direct state losses of about 23 million yuan through unauthorised property demolitions and unlawful land fee refunds.

The court further found that Yang attempted to conceal one million yuan in criminal proceeds in 2023 through a company under his control.

Although judges acknowledged that Yang assisted investigators by providing information that exposed other criminal offences—an act that could ordinarily be regarded as “meritorious service” and warrant a reduced sentence—they ruled that the gravity of his crimes outweighed any mitigating factors.

According to the judgment, the “extremely huge bribe amounts, particularly serious criminal circumstances, extremely vile social impact and especially heavy losses to the state and the people” left no room for leniency.

Yang pleaded guilty and expressed remorse during public court hearings held in March and April.

Alongside the death sentence, the court stripped him of his political rights for life and ordered the confiscation of all his personal assets.