Former tycoon sentenced for bribery

Yun Gongmin, a former tycoon in China's electricity industry, received a death sentence with a two-year reprieve for accepting more than 468 million yuan ($70.23 million) in bribes, a court in Northeast China's Jilin province ruled on Thursday.

Unlike other suspended death sentences, after the two-year probation he will face a life imprisonment without any possibility of commutation or parole, according to the Changchun Intermediate People's Court.

Yun, former general manager of China Huadian Corporation, one of the country's major power companies, accepted the judgment and would not appeal, the court said in a statement.

The court found he took advantage of his positions to seek benefits for others in the selection and appointment of officials, business operations and project contracts between 1992 and 2016.

Between 1992 and 2016, the former tycoon served several roles, including vice-chairman of the government of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, deputy Party secretary of Shanxi province and former deputy chairman of China Shenhua Energy Company, another energy giant in the country.

Yun should have been sentenced to death due to his particularly serious crime which caused an extraordinary loss to the country and people. Considering he truthfully confessed his crime and surrendered his ill-gotten gains, he was given a more lenient punishment, the court said.