Four prison officials in Shanghai have been jailed for taking bribes and providing preferential treatment to Zhou Zhengyi, a convicted property tycoon, local courts said Friday.

Zhou Zhengyi, former president of Shanghai-based property firm Nongkai Development Group, had been charged and convicted for fraud and stock manipulation.

Zhou was arrested and put into the Shanghai Detention House on May. 26, 2003, which keeps prisoners awaiting trial. He was transferred to the Shanghai Tilanqiao Prison on June. 26, 2004, after being sentenced on June 1, 2004 to a three-year jail term.

The Shanghai No. 2 People's Court heard that Huang Jian, former director of the detention house, has taken 400,000 yuan of bribes (about US$52,600) in return for preferential treatment to Zhou. The court sentenced Huang to 11 years in prison, and sentenced his wife to three years in prison for collusion, but gave her a three year reprieve.

The court also gave jail terms to two other prison officials who took bribes and offered convenience to Zhou in the prison. Wang Zhengming, director of the prison affairs department of the Shanghai Prison Administration, was given two years of imprisonment and two years reprieve, for taking 41,000 yuan (about US$5,400) of bribes from people related to Zhou.

Yu Jinbao, a supervisor in the Shanghai Tilanqiao prison, was sentenced to two years in prison.

The court said Yu had helped his wife to sign a contract to decorate the house of one of Zhou's relatives. Yu had also written more than 200 letters to try to get Zhou's sentence commuted, it said.

Fu Kehu, another supervisor in the prison who was tried in the Shanghai Hongkou District People's Court, was jailed for two years for accepting a car worth 77,000 yuan from people related to Zhou.

Zhou, 45 and also known as Chau Ching-ngai, started business as a teenager in a wonton noodle shop. In 2002, Forbes estimated Zhou's wealth at about US$320 million.

In January this year, Zhou was re-arrested on charges of bribery and forging VAT receipts, just months after being released from prison in May, last year.

(Xinhua News Agency August 11, 2007)