China Sentences Former Nanjing Official to Death Over $325 Million Bribery Scandal in One of Biggest Corruption Cases

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A court in eastern China has sentenced former senior Nanjing official Yang Youlin to death after finding him guilty of accepting bribes worth 2.2 billion yuan (about $325 million or £243 million) over a period spanning three decades, in one of the country’s largest corruption cases in recent years.

The judgment was delivered on Monday by the Changzhou Intermediate People’s Court, which also stripped Yang of his political rights for life and ordered the confiscation of all his personal assets. Authorities said any remaining illegal proceeds would continue to be recovered.

According to the court, Yang abused his official positions between 1993 and 2023 while serving in several influential roles in Nanjing, including executive deputy director of the Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone. Prosecutors said he used his influence to facilitate engineering contracts, land transactions, financing arrangements and other business deals in exchange for enormous sums of money and valuable gifts.

In addition to bribery, Yang was convicted of embezzlement, misappropriation of public funds, abuse of power, offering bribes and money laundering. The court described the scale of his crimes as “especially huge,” saying the offences had “extremely serious circumstances” and caused significant losses to the state and the public while generating an exceptionally harmful social impact.

Although Yang pleaded guilty, expressed remorse and reportedly cooperated with investigators by providing information about other cases, the court ruled that the gravity of his offences outweighed any mitigating factors. As a result, it imposed the death penalty.

The case has attracted widespread attention because of the unprecedented amount involved and the severity of the punishment. While China frequently prosecutes public officials for corruption, death sentences in white-collar corruption cases remain relatively rare and are generally reserved for the most serious offences.

Yang’s conviction comes amid China’s continuing anti-corruption campaign under President Xi Jinping, which has led to investigations and disciplinary actions against millions of officials since 2012. Analysts say high-profile prosecutions are intended to reinforce public confidence in the government’s anti-graft efforts while sending a strong warning to officials across the country.

Under Chinese law, Yang has the right to appeal the verdict. However, given the court’s strong assessment of the case and the scale of the offences, attention will now focus on whether the sentence is upheld during the legal review process.