A labor and social security official was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve at the first trial on Friday for taking bribes and embezzling public funds in east China's Jiangxi Province.

Tao Niangen, former Labor and Social Security Bureau director of Nanchang City, the provincial capital, had taken bribes of 5.67 million yuan (834,000 U.S. dollars) from five private construction companies since 1995 when he began to serve in the post, according to the Nanchang Intermediate People's Court.

The largest bribe, 5.12 million yuan, came from Tao Chunhua, Nanchang Xinhuaqun Co. Ltd general manager, in exchange for a 20-year right to run the Huanhu Hotel under the bureau's administration, the court said.

Tao's wife Chen Jinfeng, and his son Tao Ran, were convicted of accepting bribes worth 550,000 yuan in 1997-2000 in return for favorable treatment in construction projects or promotion.

The court also heard Tao embezzled as much as 68.9 million yuan in industrial insurance funds from 1993 to 2005 for construction projects. The funds had not been recovered.

Tao appealed to a higher court after the trial. Other defendants in the case had not been tried yet.

(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2008)