Tycoon, once China's richest man, jailed for bribery

A business tycoon who became China's richest man by building an electronics empire has been jailed for 14 years for bribery and insider trading. Once known as the "Price Butcher" for the low prices at his GOME chain of stores, Huang Guangyu is being held up as an example of corporate greed.

Reuters

A Beijing court ordered Huang, aged in his 40s, to pay a fine of 600 million yuan (70 million euros). Authorities seized another 200 million yuan in assets as part of his conviction.

Huang was named China's richest man in 2004, 2005 and 2008 by the Hurun
Report magazine. In October 2008, his estimated net worth was 6.3 billion dollars.

He was detained and placed under investigation in November 2008, and resigned
as GOME director and chairman in January 2009.

Huang was held for more than a year without charge, before being tried in April in a Beijing court.

He was found guilty of bribing or ordering others to bribe five government officials with 4.56 million yuan in cash and properties from 2006 to 2008, the Xinhua news agency said.

The bribes were offered in exchange for "improper benefits" for Huang's GOME Electrical Appliances Holdings and his Beijing Pengrun Real Estate Development Company, it said previously.

Gome and Pengrun were fined five million and 1.2 million yuan, respectively.

Huang was also convicted of insider trading of shares in the Shenzhen-listed Beijing Centergate Technologies, in which he was the majority shareholder.

He allegedly earned more than 300 million yuan in illegal profits.

The court said it had shown "leniency" even though Huang's crimes were "extremely serious" because he had admitted his guilt and cooperated with investigators.

GOME is now China's largest electronics and appliance chain with more than 1,200 stores in more than 200 cities.