Former Hubei vice governor gets life sentence for graft, inside information violation

NANJING, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Cao Guangjing, former vice governor of central China's Hubei Province, has been sentenced to life in prison on charges of accepting bribes and divulging inside information.

The sentence was announced by a court in the city of Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, on Friday.

The court found that between 2004 and 2022, Cao had taken undue advantage of his various posts, including those as a senior executive of the China Three Gorges Corporation and as the vice governor of Hubei, to provide help for others in matters such as business operation, project contracting, and project development. In return, he accepted over 216 million yuan (about 30.4 million U.S. dollars) in cash and gifts.

Also, in 2021, when Cao served as Hubei vice governor and led the restructuring of a listed company, he disclosed inside information to others, enabling them to profit from buying and selling the company's stocks, gaining over 10 million yuan, according to the court.

The court sentenced Cao to life imprisonment and ruled that he would also be deprived of political rights for life, and all of his personal property would be confiscated. All his illegal gains would be recovered and turned over to the state treasury.

The court said Cao's act of bribery involved an especially huge amount of bribes and the circumstances of his disclosure of inside information were particularly severe.

However, Cao had voluntarily turned himself in, showed remorse, and had been cooperative in returning the illegal gains, which had been recovered in full. These facts were taken into consideration when handing down the sentence.