SHANGHAI, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese court sentenced Shanghai property tycoon Zhou Zhengyi to 16 years in prison on Friday after he was found guilty on five charges that included misappropriation of funds, bribery and forging value-added tax (VAT) receipts.
Zhou's company, the Shanghai-based property firm Nongkai Development Group, was fined 3.35 million yuan (452,700 U.S. dollars), under a ruling by the Shanghai Municipal No. 2 Intermediate People's Court.
Zhou and his company were accused of bribing officials from the Shanghai Futures Exchange and banks, for a total of 1.67 million yuan, the court heard.
He and his company were also accused of forging 8,435 VAT receipts, involving 1.2 billion yuan in taxes, it heard.
Zhou was also charged with bribing a prison official with 200,000 yuan for special treatment during his first jail term.
Altogether, four prison officials were involved in the case and they were jailed in August for taking bribes and providing preferential treatment to Zhou.
In addition, Zhou was found guilty of embezzling 200 million yuan from another company, the court heard.
There was no word on whether Zhou would lodge an appeal.
The on-line edition of Caijing Magazine (www.caijing.com.cn) reported Friday that Zhou had not objected to the verdict, but his lawyer was reportedly advising him to appeal.
Zhou, former president of Nongkai, was released from prison in May 2006 after completing a three-year sentence for fraud and manipulating the stock market. But five months later, in October, Zhou was detained as prosecutors investigated a Shanghai social security fund scandal.
Zhou appeared in court again late October this year on new charges of misappropriation of funds, bribery and forging VAT receipts.
Shanghai courts began to hear cases of officials involved in the social security fund scandal in June this year. The financial scandal was exposed to the public last year, with 3.7 billion yuan involved.
Investigators found the money had been illegally loaned, by a company of the municipal labor and social security bureau, to Shanghai Feidian Investment Development Co. Ltd, a company controlled by another business tycoon Zhang Rongkun, No. 16 on the Forbes China Rich List in 2005, who has also been arrested as part of the investigation into the misuse of the pension funds.
Zhang was the first person arrested amid the government's probe into the fund scandal, which also brought down a number of high-ranking officials including former Shanghai Party chief Chen Liangyu.
Zhou, born in 1961, also known as Chau Ching-ngai, started business as a teenager in a wonton noodle shop. In 2002, Forbes estimated Zhou's wealth at about 320 million U.S. dollars.
He is also wanted by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in Hong Kong.
Zhou's wife, Hong Kong socialite Mo Yuk-ping, is now in prison in Hong Kong. She was found guilty in January 2006 of two counts of conspiring to defraud potential investors and jailed for three and a half years.
In April 2006, a district court in Hong Kong separately sentenced her to one year and four months after she pleaded guilty to 12 counts of conspiracy to defraud and admitted fraudulently obtaining almost 50 million HK dollars (6.45 million U.S. dollars) in credit from five banks in Hong Kong.
