Zheng Weimin, former vice director of Gansu Provincial Department of Finance, was sentenced to 16 years in prison on bribery and embezzlement charges by a local court in northwest China on Monday morning.

The Intermediate People's Court of Lanzhou convicted Zheng of embezzling 300,000 yuan (US$37,100), taking 320,000 yuan (US$39,600) in bribes and possessing 1,944,019 yuan (US$240,600) for which he could not name a legitimate source.

Court sources said Zheng had embezzled the money in March 2003 from government funds to use for his son's admission to an art school in Beijing, and he used his position at the Department of Finance to allocate funds to bribe-givers.

At his home and in banks, investigators found money and articles valued at a total of 2,985,096 yuan (US$369,500). Of this, 320,000 yuan was confirmed to be from bribes and 721,077 yuan from legal sources, leaving 1,944,019 yuan unaccounted for.

On November 28, 2003, Zheng was detained suspected of corruption, and on December 11 he was charged with the approval of the Provincial Higher People's Procuratorate.

Zheng made voluntary confessions and reportedly helped to retrieve all the illicit money.

He will appeal to a higher court against his sentence, the court said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 6, 2005)