China Life ex-chair given death penalty with reprieve

Wang Bin, former Party chief and chairman of the China Life Insurance, was sentenced to the death penalty with a two-year reprieve on Tuesday due to taking bribes of about 325 million yuan ($44.5 million) and concealing overseas deposits of about 56.4 million yuan.

After the reprieve, Wang's death sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment. During his life imprisonment, he shall not be eligible for parole or sentence reduction, according to the verdict issued by the Jinan Intermediate People's Court in Shandong province.

He was also deprived of political rights for life, and all of his assets were confiscated.

It didn't mention if Wang will appeal the verdict or not.

According to the court, from 1997 to 2021, Wang made use of the positions he held, including vice-president of the Jiangxi branch of the Agricultural Development Bank of China, and president of the Beijing branch of the Bank of Communications and chairman of China Life Insurance, to help certain companies and individuals in matters such as loans, financing and project cooperation.

In return, he, directly or through his relatives, accepted money and property totaling 325 million yuan.

Starting from January 2012, Wang violated China's foreign exchange management regulations and the reporting system of overseas deposits for functionaries in the State organ by secretly depositing foreign currency equivalent to over 56.4 million yuan into bank and securities accounts held by his relatives in Hong Kong.

The court determined that Wang's acts constituted the crimes of bribery and concealing overseas deposits. The amount of bribes received by Wang was quite large, the circumstances of his crimes were particularly severe, and the social impact was extremely detrimental, causing significant losses to the State and the people's interests, justifying the imposition of the death penalty for the bribery charge.

Given his truthful confession and active restitution of illegally obtained gains qualify for mitigated punishment, the court decided to impose the death penalty with a two-year reprieve, said the court.

Wang, 64, a native of Heilongjiang province, joined the Party in 1985.

He served as Party chief and chairman of China Taiping Insurance Holdings from March 2012 to September 2018 and later became Party chief and chairman of China Life Insurance.

He was placed under investigation in January 2022. He resigned as chairman of China Life Insurance in February.