Qin Jinlong, an entrepreneur in Shanghai, was tried Monday at the municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court for embezzling 160 million yuan (23.43 million U.S. dollars) in state assets.

Qin was the former president of the Shanghai Zhongxiang Group. He embezzled 160 million yuan by illegally transferring a 200-hectare plot of land to Zhou Xiaodi during the Zhongxiang Group's transition from a state-owned business to a private one in April 2001.

Qin's collaborators were Ding Peili, former CFO of Zhongxiang group, and Zhang Yong, former party leader of the company. The two were also defendants at Monday's trial. Verdicts will be announced later, the municipal intermediate court said.

Zhou Group Chairman Zhou Xiaodi was arrested one day after he was expelled from the Shanghai municipal committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) last December on suspicion of having arranged an assault on a business partner. The partner was seriously injured in the attack in November.

Zhou, 52, founded the Zhou Group in 1992 and has conducted business in real estate, education and hospital education. He ranked 31st on Hu Run's list of China's philanthropists with donations of 24.90 million yuan in 2006.

(Xinhua News Agency March 2, 2009)