Former Shanghai property tycoon Zhou Zhengyi on Monday lodged an appeal against his conviction for graft that resulted in a 16-year prison term.

Zhou, in his appeal, requested the Shanghai Municipal Higher People's Court disaffirm "some wrong judgements" reached by a lower local court on Nov. 30, a spokesman with the higher court said.

He also sought the annulment of a court order for the "confiscation of illegal earnings" in the sentence.

The appeal cited a lack of evidence and no basis in law for the charges of misappropriation of funds, bribery and forging value-added tax (VAT) receipts.

It said that neither he nor his company had illegal earnings, and the lower court judges failed to fully take into consideration his testimony against others involved in criminal activities.

The court spokesman provided no further details.

Zhou was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Nov. 30 after he was found guilty on five charges, and his company, the Shanghai-based property firm Nongkai Development Group, was fined 3.35 million yuan (452,700 U.S. dollars), under a ruling by the Shanghai Municipal No. 2 Intermediate People's Court.

Zhou and his company were convicted of giving officials at the Shanghai Futures Exchange and banks a total of 1.67 million yuan in bribes.

The court also found that he and his company were guilty of forging 8,435 VAT receipts, involving 1.2 billion yuan in taxes.

Zhou was also convicted of bribing a prison official with 200,000 yuan for special treatment during an earlier prison term.

In addition, Zhou was found guilty of embezzling 200 million yuan from another company.

According to Article 205 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, anyone convicted of falsely making out special invoices for value-added tax, "if the amount involved is especially huge, and the circumstances are especially serious, thus causing especially heavy losses to the interests of the State", faces life imprisonment or execution and the confiscation of their property.

The verdict said the judges showed leniency after taking into consideration Zhou's voluntary confession of bribery, and his testimony against other people, and repaid the embezzled money.

Zhou, former president of Nongkai, was released from prison in May 2006 after serving a three-year sentence for fraud and manipulating the stock market. But in October that year, he was detained as prosecutors investigated a Shanghai social security fund scandal.

Zhou appeared in court again in late October this year on new charges of embezzlement, bribery and forging VAT receipts.

Shanghai courts began to hear cases against officials involved in the social security fund scandal in June this year. The financial scandal, involving 3.7 billion yuan, was exposed to the public last year.

Investigators found the money had been illegally loaned by a company of the municipal labor and social security bureau to Shanghai Feidian Investment Development Co. Ltd, a company controlled by tycoon Zhang Rongkun, ranked 16th on the Forbes China Rich List in 2005, who was also arrested during the investigation into the misuse of the pension funds.

Zhang was the first person arrested in the government's probe into the scandal, which brought down high-ranking officials, including former Shanghai Party chief Chen Liangyu.

Zhou, born in 1961, 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 320 million U.S. dollars.

He is also wanted by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in Hong Kong.

(Xinhua News Agency, December 11, 2007)