The former vice president and general manager of the Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings Ltd. was sentenced to life imprisonment and stripped of his political rights Friday by the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court for taking bribes.

Li Yimin was found guilty of taking 209,000 yuan (US$25,252), HK$3.29 million (US$423,456) and US$25,000 in bribes.

Li insisted the money he got was to cover the medical and legal costs for his daughter who was studying in Australia and injured when a carnival facility collapsed in 2002. But the court said he used the money for investment and daily life rather than for his daughter.

The court said it gave Li a favorable sentence because he surrendered and confessed to taking bribes. But Li said he would appeal.

In 2003, the procuratorate in Haizhu District learned that its counterpart in another district had cracked a case involving a pharmaceutical factory under the Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings Ltd., making Haizhu prosecutors wonder whether there was corruption in other similar factories.

Anti-corruption officials in Haizhu then noticed many pharmaceutical factories needed to spend a lot on a major technical reform and suspected there might be loopholes. The illegal practice of medical merchants to elevate medicine prices also caught their attention. They solicited opinions through forums at some Web sites, which widened their horizons. A further probe led to the crack of the case.

Seven other officials of the Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings Ltd. had already been convicted.

(Shenzhen Daily July 4, 2005)