CHANGCHUN, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Ling Chengxing, former head of China's State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for accepting bribes and abusing power.
The sentence was handed down on Wednesday by the intermediate people's court of Changchun in northeast China's Jilin Province.
Ling was found to have taken advantage of his various posts between 2006 and 2023 to seek benefits for others in matters such as project contracting and business operations, while accepting bribes worth 43.11 million yuan (about 6 million U.S. dollars) in return for such favors.
Moreover, since 2015, during his tenure as Party chief and director of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and general manager of China National Tobacco Corporation, Ling had engaged in favoritism, corruption and abuse of power in the process of facilitating and reviewing matters related to investment and equity acquisition, resulting in a loss of state-owned assets amounting to over 208 million yuan, per the court verdict.
Ling was also handed a 4-million yuan fine, while all his illegal gains must be recovered and turned over to the state treasury, the court sentence read. ■
