Beijing: A Shanghai tycoon who was a key figure in the high-profile social security fund scandal was today sent to jail for 19 years for paying bribes, manipulating stock market and fraudulently issuing bonds.

The court also ordered confiscation of assets worth 1.3 billion Yuan (USD 186 million) of forty-year-old Zhang Rongkun, the Shanghai Fuxi Investment Holdings Co-Chairman, who had ranked 16th on the Forbes China Rich List in 2005.

The scandal involving 3.7 billion Yuan surfaced in 2006,leading to the sacking of former Shanghai Communist Party chief Chen Liangyu from the party after the Central Discipline Inspection Commission said he was involved in corruption.

Zhang was accused of bribing a former director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau, Zhu Junyi, to obtain 3.2 billion Yuan loans from the social security funds.

He was found guilty and handed down the sentence by the Songyuan Municipal Intermediate People's Court, official Xinhua news agency said.

Zhu was jailed for 18 years earlier for accepting bribes, embezzling money and abusing power by the Changchun Municipal Intermediate Peoples Court in Jilin Province.

Source : PTI