Both the 1.19 billion yuan from Haixin shares and about 139 million yuan from the Hong Kong market were frozen by the judicial authority before the trial. A total of 1.6 billion yuan, including a 282 million yuan penalty, were confiscated from Zhang Rongkun.

Shanghai's biggest ever financial scandal since economic reforms began involved the misappropriation of 3.7 billion yuan of the city's pension funds, including 3.45 billion yuan in principal and 250 million yuan in interest. A total of 25 senior government officials and corporate executives have been or will be tried in courts in Shanghai, Jilin Province and Anhui Province for their involvement in the scandal.

Sixteen of them have already been convicted.

Four of the convicted, including Qin Yu, former secretary of Chen Liangyu, received life-long jail terms while Wang Chengming, former chairman of Shanghai Electric Group Co, was sentenced to death with a two-year suspension, for taking more than 300 million yuan from a land sale in Shanghai in 2003.

The rest, including former Formula One racing boss in Shanghai, Yu Zhifei, received jail terms ranging from one-and-a-half years to 19 years in trials held in Anhui Province in January.

Under Chinese law, major trials involving senior officials are heard in other jurisdictions to ensure impartiality.

(Shanghai Daily April 18, 2008)