Former Chinese bank manager receives life sentence for corruption.

A former bank manager in China has been sentenced to life imprisonment in one of the country's largest corruption cases. Xu Guojun, who was the head of a Bank of China branch from 1993 to 2001, was found guilty of embezzling 2.3 billion yuan ($325 million). This case is part of President Xi Jinping's campaign against corruption in the country's financial industry, which is worth $60 trillion. The crackdown has already implicated several banking officials and executives. Xu and two other former Bank of China employees took advantage of flaws in the fund management system to obtain fraudulent loans. Xu's accomplices received prison sentences of 12 and 13 years, and over 2 billion yuan of the stolen money has been recovered. Xu, who had fled to the US but was forcibly returned two years ago, has chosen not to appeal the conviction. He has also been stripped of his political rights for life, and all his assets have been confiscated. Other high-ranking financial executives from state-owned banks in China have either been fined, imprisoned, or are currently under investigation. President Xi has expressed the need to clamp down on the extravagant lifestyles of bankers, labeling them as "hedonistic." In October, the former chairman of Bank of China was arrested for suspected bribery and illegal lending. Liu Liange, who served as chairman from 2019 to 2023, had resigned earlier this year. In September, the former chairman of China Life Insurance, Wang Bin, was sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for bribery. The efforts to eliminate corruption in the financial sector in China appear to be intensifying, with officials warning in April that the crackdown is far from over.