Another six high-ranking officials involved in the Shanghai social security fund scandal received punishment on Tuesday.

Qin Yu, former chief of the city's Baoshan District, was given life imprisonment by the Changchun Intermediate Court, in northeast China's Jilin Province.

Sun Luyi, former deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, was sentenced to 15 years in prison also by the Changchun court. Both men were convicted of abuse of power and accepting bribes.

Qin, 43, was found guilty of taking bribes totaling 6.8 million yuan (US$91,891) from Zhang Rongkun, a businessman and a key figure in the scandal.

Qin, the secretary to Shanghai's disgraced former Party chief Chen Liangyu, was discharged from his public post on August 29 last year, a month after he was appointed head of the Baoshan District.

Qin joined the public service sector in 1994 and served as secretary to Chen for almost seven years.

Zhang, once a rising star, was the first person arrested in the scandal which was exposed more than a year ago. The scandal also brought down a number of high-ranking officials including former Shanghai Party chief Chen, 59. He is the highest-ranking Party official to be axed in more than a decade.

Shanghai's social security fund scandal was exposed last year. It involved the misuse of 3.7 billion yuan.

On Tuesday four other senior officials involved in the scandal were found guilty by the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate Court and were sentenced from three to 11 years imprisonment.

Ling Baoheng, former director of the Shanghai Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, was sentenced to eight years in prison for accepting bribes totaling 500,000 yuan in cash and gifts.

Wu Hongmei, former deputy director of the commission, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for accepting bribes worth about 1.96 million yuan, mainly from State-owned enterprises under his supervision and from businessman Zhang Rongkun.

Xu Wei, former vice-president of the Shanghai Electric Group Asset Management Co, received seven years in prison for taking bribes totaling 392,000 yuan.

Cheng Yanmin, also from the Shanghai Electric Group Asset Management Co, was sentenced to three years in prison reprieved for five years for bribery.

On September 23, Zhu Junyi, former director of the Shanghai Labor and Social Security Bureau and a key figure in the scandal, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Zhu's case was also handled by the Changchun Intermediate Court.

(China Daily September 27, 2007)