China: Former Communist party official sentenced to death over bribery, insider trading

Tong Daochi, a former Communist party official of south China's Hainan Province, was recently sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve by a Chinese court for bribery and insider trading.

The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court in Guangdong Province on June 2 deprived the former senior official of political rights and also confiscated all the personal property, adding that the illegal gains he obtained through the crimes, as well as the benefits generated from them, should be confiscated and turned over to the state treasury, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.

The court stated, "The sum of bribes Tong had taken was especially huge and the circumstances of his crime were especially heinous, inflicting huge losses to the state and the people."

Daochi served as a former standing committee member of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China. He was also a former Party chief of the province's Sanya City and held posts at the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).

The court found that between 2004 and 2020, Tong had taken advantage of his various posts at the CSRC and in Hainan to offer assistance to others regarding the listing of companies, business operation, financing borrowing and personnel promotion.

In return, he accepted money and gifts worth over 274 million yuan (about 41 million US dollars) either by himself or via people affiliated with him, Xinhua reported. He was also found to have abused the inside information he obtained via his post at the CSRC to instruct his close relatives and other close connections to buy relevant stocks worth over 31.65 million Yuan, obtaining illegal gains of over 3.38 million Yuan between 2006 and 2007, the court stated