WU FUWU, former president of the Bank of China (BOC) Anhui Branch, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for misuse of public funds and for improperly providing foreign exchange (Forex) guarantees. The Intermediate People’s Court of Hefei city, the capital of Anhui Province in East China, delivered the verdict recently. The court investigation revealed that Wu obtained a loan of 20 million yuan (US$1.2 million) in 1997 from the Luzhou Credit Cooperative in the name of the Yintong Corporation, a firm affiliated with the BOC Anhui branch. In accordance with Wu’s directives, the loan was subsequently transferred to a businessman identified as Li by Liu Xiaogong, chairman of the Yintong Corporation. Two million yuan (US$240,000) of that money was retained by Liu. The court said in its verdict that the loan was part of the 150 million yuan (some US$18 million) that Wu had promised to raise for the opening of a bank in Macao by Li and himself. The two had agreed to open the bank, when Wu told Li in 1995 that he would like to stay in the banking sector after his retirement. They agreed then that Li would be responsible for obtaining the essential authorizations for the establishment of the bank, while Wu pledged that he would raise 150 million yuan for the planned bank. The court also found Wu guilty of illegally offering Forex guarantees to overseas companies owned by the branch between 1992 and 1997, resulting in a financial loss of more than US$5.3 million to the bank. Liu Xiaogong was sentenced to life imprisonment for embezzling public funds. Both Wu and Liu have said that they would appeal the court’s verdict. (SD-Agencies)