A grain depot head in northeast China was brought to court this month on charges of embezzling millions of yuan in public money to speculate in the futures market, causing huge loss to his enterprise.

Li Zhiguo, the defendant and former head of the Handian Grain Despot in Shuangcheng City of Heilongjiang Province, misappropriated a total of 72.34 million yuan (US$8.7 million) in 12 separate offenses between 2001 and October 2002, according to the Intermediate People's Court of Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang.

Li, 48, allegedly manipulated his power to transfer money from the sale of grain into three futures accounts in the names of his wife surnamed Wu, his nephew surnamed Li, and the Huade Company.

The money was used to trade futures on the North Asia Futures Market and the Sanli Futures Market.

Li lost 35.76 million yuan (US$4.3 million) of public money because of his failure in futures speculation, according to the prosecutor.

(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2003)