A local court in Central China's Hunan Province sentenced a house fund management director to death on Wednesday for embezzling around 120 million yuan (US$14.8 million).

Li Shubiao, former director of the Public Housing Fund Management Centre of Chenzhou, Central China's Hunan Province, said he would lodge an appeal after the Chenzhou Intermediate People's Court found him guilty, local media reported.

As treasurer of the fund, which was supposed to help 200,000 workers purchase private houses, Li misappropriated the money over a five-year period from 1999 and squandered part of it gambling in Macao casinos.

It is reported to be the first such case involving such a large amount of public housing funds.

Li, 41, with only a junior middle school education background, first came to the police's attention after a gambler killed Li's superior over a gambling dispute, at the end of 2003. At the time Li was staying with his superior at a hotel in Chenzhou.

Even though Li was not involved in the case, the local discipline department and prosecutors became suspicious. Their suspicions were further aroused by Li's continual absence from work, which started in early 2004. Intensive investigations were soon under way.

Later that year, Li was caught in his villa in Guangzhou and was sent back to Chenzhou.

According to the court document, Li illegally obtained about 62 million yuan (US$7.6 million) of bank loans by using the public housing fund as surety, between 1999 and 2004.

He also defrauded the bank of 57 million yuan (US$7 million) by fabricating company and borrowers' names, and by using bogus IDs and materials.

(China Daily August 26, 2005)